The outskirts of Marsa may see the construction of a 16 floor block of offices after an outline development permission application was filed with the Planning Authority.
If eventually granted, the application will see the additional excavation to the currently excavated site down to the required site levels, and the subsequent construction of a high-rise building using the Floor Area Ratio Policy: consisting of three underground parking levels and 16 floors of Offices (Class 4A), with a food and drink establishment (Class 4D) and showroom at ground floor.
An outline development application is filed so to establish whether the scale and nature of a proposed development is acceptable in principle to the Planning Authority. Subsequent to receiving this planning permission, an applicant will require a full development permit to actually carry out the project.
The site measures a total of 1,877 metres squared and is situated on Triq it-Tigrija within the limits of Marsa. Situated behind what was once a matchbox factory, the site is already excavated to some degree, although it has left empty for a fair few years, with nature somewhat taking over the hole that were left as a result of the excavation.
The application’s masterplan notes that there is a gross floor area of 479 metres squared up to the ninth level of the project, which will reduce to 333 metres squared from the tenth level up to the fifteenth. It also indicates the construction of a service road at ground level. The plans indicate that a total of 137 parking spaces will be provided across three underground levels.
The site has been subject to a previous application which was for the construction of showrooms, offices and basement parking spaces. That application was refused by the PA board in 2011.
Given the scale of the proposal, the Environment Resources Authority has imposed that an Environmental Impact Assessment, Air Quality Studies which take into account the current peak hourly traffic flow and the projected increase in traffic flow post-development, and also a block plan identifying the trees on site and the interventions proposed thereon.
This is the second such outline development permission application submitted for the area; just across the road from this site, another application of this type was filed early last year for a huge 37-storey tower with the ground floor occupying 7,500sqm, acting as a podium, with the first floor being 2,650sqm, then with each floor reducing in size. The total site area for the development is shown as being 13,735 metres squared. The processing of that application is currently suspended at the request of the project’s perit.
Early last year, the Church’s Environment Commission also highlighted the need for a masterplan for Marsa and the inner Grand Harbour area which would be based on a sound public consultation process and be drawn up in such a manner that the area reaches its full potential in an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable manner