The final decision on db Group’s proposed tower expansions has been deferred once again after new documents were filed with the Planning Authority.

The decision had already been deferred once after an issue with the appointment of the NGO representative on the Planning Board had to be resolved.

db Group is seeking to increase the height of its two towers from 17 and 18 storeys to 23 and 25 storeys respectively.

This would result in the creation of 82 new apartments in the already huge project, bringing the total number of apartments in the towers up from 179 to 261.

Justifying the new plans, db Group had said that when the current valid permits were approved in 2021 the company had not made full use of the Gross Floor Area that was allowed. Activists and objectors, however, warned that it was an unacceptable over-intensification of development, adding to what is already an overbearing building with huge burdens on infrastructure, traffic, and residents of the surrounding area.

The Planning Authority’s case officer is recommending the application for approval.

However, the approval didn’t come on Thursday after the Board noted that new documents had been filed on the application and these had not been made available to the public yet.  The Board therefore agreed to defer the decision by three weeks so that the public has time to examine the new filings.

Regardless, the Board allowed several submissions to be made so that any concerns with regards to the project could be addressed in the coming three weeks.

Chief among the people with concerns was architect Anton Valentino who was representing the Swieqi Local Council, which has vehemently opposed the project from the get go. 

He argued that one of the conditions for the development which had initially been imposed by Transport Malta was the need for road improvements to the area – but a road network upgrade proposed by Infrastructure Malta before the permits were initially granted for the db mega-project have now been shelved.

Transport Malta’s requirement, therefore, is no longer being satisfied, Valentino argued.  One of the project’s architects however replied that Transport Malta had given its consent to the extension citing a different planning application filed recently by Infrastructure Malta.

The project’s architect was also questioned as to whether opening up the avenue for this extension would allow further extensions in the future, to which the architect responded that db Group has “no interest or intention” today to further extend the project.