The Planning Authority Board will decide on the new Sliema Townsquare high rise proposal on Thursday, after the developers presented new plans.
The Sliema local council as well as ENGOs had officially filed an appeal before the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal (EPRT) in relation to the Planning Authority's granting of the permit for the development by Townsquare Ltd. In May 2018 the EPRT had ruled that plans for the Townsquare project in Sliema were to be sent back to the Planning Authority for a new decision.
The EPRT had decided that a new assessment was required in line with the Floor Area Ratio policy. The Environment Authority also needed to re-assess the project on the basis of a new environmental impact assessment, a social impact assessment and a traffic impact assessment.
The updated case officer’s report reads that the application has been amended following EPRT decision with the main alteration being the reduction of building height from 38 storeys to 28 floors (one of which is double height). “The updated proposal includes the same number of apartments, a reduction of 638sqm of office space, an increase of 307sqm to the gym/health club/ spa, a reduction of 270sqm of retail space/ food & beverage.”
In total, the new proposal includes 159 apartments, 4,081 square metres (sqm) of office space, 590 sqm of spa and gym area, excluding the pool, 8,557 sqm of retail, food and beverage space, and 747 car parking spaces.
The site will have 2,967 sqm of open space, and the total proposed floor space above ground (excluding Villa Drago Site) is 50,819 sqm.
In terms of the building height reduction, the case officer’s report reads: “the lowering of the tower in the development seeks to address the concerns raised with regards to the visual and skyline of Valletta. Whilst noting that this was one of the parameters leading to the re-design, the Architect notes that the substantial reduction in building height reduced the distant visual impact and improved the closer immediate neighbouring visual form.”
The ERA, according to the report, considers and agrees that the residual impact on Villa Drago, as assessed in the EIA Report, is of minor significance and that its restoration is expected to be of major beneficial significance.
In terms of visual impact, the ERA “considers and agrees that the residual impact on the visual amenity, as indicated by the consultants’ report, is of major significance, especially when seen from the Sliema and Gzira waterfronts, Valletta and Bighi. In view of the scale and nature of the development being proposed, it is difficult to provide mitigation measures to reduce the impact on visual amenity... With regard to the effects of the proposal on human populations, ERA considers and agrees that the residual impact ranges from minor to major significance during the construction phase and from not significant to minor during the operational phase.” They also noted that around 70% of the required excavation has already been carried out.
“ERA considers and agrees that the residual impact ranges from minor to major significance during the construction phase and from not significant to minor during the operational phase.” The ERA did not object to the proposal, however made a number of recommendations and conditions to help mitigate certain issues.
The Design Advisory Committee (DAC) concluded that they are not averse to the proposal from a design point of view.
The Planning Directorate recommended that the application be approved.