ODZ old people’s home proposed in Gozo

A private old people’s home is being proposed on farmland accessed from the road leading to the picturesque Ramla l-Hamra beach.

The completely new development is being proposed on a 3,240 square metre agricultural area known as Tal-Biziel. The proposed facility is described in the planning application presented to MEPA in December as a “dementia friendly elderly home”.

The development is being proposed over three levels: a ground level and two overlying floors. It will include a chapel, a reception area, a kitchen and dining area, a retail shop, a mortuary and 219 rooms.

John Spiteri, owner of the site, was last year granted a permit to construct a reservoir and an agricultural store there.  

MEPA had previously rejected this application, which was approved against the advice of the Planning Directorate following reconsideration. An application to build a farmhouse, presented by Rose Spiteri, was refused in 1993.

The newly approved SPED states that new social and community facilities should be preferably located in urban areas but where “no other feasible alternatives exist” it allows consideration of facilities related to “education, health, elderly, disabled and rehabilitation facilities” in rural areas.

Since 2013 MEPA has received three other proposals for ODZ old people’s homes. These are proposals in Vittoriosa, Santa Lucija and Mtarfa. The Hilltop old people’s home in Naxxar, approved in 2013, is also located outside development zones but the retirement home was built in place of a batching plant and not on virgin land.  

MEPA is also considering a policy to allow two extra storeys over and above what is allowed in local plans, on existing old people’s homes. But no extra storeys are allowed on sites which are located outside development zones.