Developers eye ODZ land in Naxxar for old people’s home

An old people’s home is being proposed on land lying outside development boundaries set on a vacant 12,500 square metre plot of agricultural land in tal-Balal, Naxxar in the vicinity of Gharghur.

Ray Aquilina, owner of Kajjarun Limited and Madliena Developers Limited, is proposing the development.

The facility proposed is made up of two wings consisting of 200 rooms set on a ground floor and a first floor with a pool in between and a basement parking area.

Aquilina had previously applied to develop a warehouse and a plant yard in the same area but the application was refused in 2009. The appeals tribunal confirmed the decision in 2013.

The land in question is designated as a rural conservation area in the local plans and consists of a rehabilitated quarry, which has been converted back to arable land.

The Spatial Plan for the Environment and Development (SPED) foresees the development of health facilities outside the development zone. But the SPED also calls for a sequential approach, which firstly calls on developers to consider the re-use of existing developed land; secondly to re-develop existing developed land and buildings; and finally, where no other feasible alternatives exist: the use of vacant land.

The Planning Authority recently refused an application for an old people’s home located in a quarry in the Wied Ghomor valley in San Gwann.

But the PA is faced by a number of other ODZ applications for old people’s homes. The one at the most advanced stage is that located next to the Santa Lucija secondary school in the vicinity of Wied Garnaw. The developers have been asked to prepare an Environment Impact Assessment.

Two separate applications have been submitted envisioning old people’s homes in ODZ areas, one replacing a derelict structure along Triq il-Gharghur in Naxxar, and the other in Fgura overlooking Wied Blandun. Both applications are still in a preliminary stage.