A Babel in St Julian's

We need to better balance the interests of the business owners with the right of residents to enjoy their quality of life.

Many are familiar with theBiblical episode recounting the building of the tower of Babel. A high-rising tower that rose to the vaults of the sky. Builders were determined to have their icon.

Currently, a discussion is unfolding on high-rise buildings in Malta. Several high-rise projects are agglomerated around the St Julian’s area. They appear to mushroom by the day. Among other developments, there are the 25- and 40-storey towers of Mercury Towers; Pender Gardens’ 18- and 16-floor towers; a 36-storey tower for the Villa Rose site; the 29- and 23- storey high-rises by the Seabank Group at the Institute of Tourism Studies site; a 44-storey skyscraper and other high-rises at St George’s Park; a 29-floor five-star hotel near the InterContinental Hotel and what appear to be two skyscrapers and a number of high-rises by the Corinthia Group. In the case of the latter, public land was originally passed on for the exclusive development of a hotel.

Will these massive developments turn St Julian’s into a modern version of Babel?

Those who are advocating such developments are stressing that this is the way ahead. These projects would have a ripple effect on the economy, they insist. They vehemently point out that if Malta wants to become a high-end destination, it must provide top quality accommodation and facilities. They are strongly militating that Malta should become a miniature of Singapore and Dubai. The Prime Minister seems to be in sync with this vision, acknowledging his fascination with these mega destinations.

In principle, I am in agreement with high-rise developments. Being a small island, land availability is an issue. Going vertical is then one way to secure the little land and space left for our sanity. Having clearly underlined this, I do have some serious and strong reservations about the sustainability and the viability of such a number of developments, especially if these happen to be agglomerated in one area. I am not alone in this. Various leading NGOs have already registered their concerns. The president of Chamber of Architects wrote about the risk of a ‘Montabello syndrome’. The Minister of Finance also issued a warning when he spoke of an ‘unsustainable boom’.

While development per se should not be discouraged, overdevelopment should not be promoted. It seems that the suppliers are dominating the market. While their development costs have remained relatively unchanged, selling prices have rocketed.

This can clearly lead to speculation and an oversupply. Even the promoters themselves acknowledge this when proposing a mixed-use development of retail, residential and tourist units. The questions that many are posing are: would all these developments concentrated into one area further degenerate the locality? Why this fixation with Dubai or Singapore? Can’t we be proud of our own identity? Why do we have to go from one extreme to another, from prohibition to accommodating policies? As deputy mayor of St. Julian’s I would like to register the concerns of our local residents, including those of Swieqi and Pembroke. Many are rightly concerned that with the ongoing and proposed developments, our locality is being turned into a permanent building zone.

If Pender Gardens took eight to nine years to build (and is still ongoing), how much will all these mega developments take to be completed? Besides problems caused by current construction projects, our daily lives are also heavily affected by daily rowdy and/or drunken/lewd behaviour, vandalism, dust, noise pollution, aggressiveness from greedy business owners, garbage left outside collection hours and a lack of parking facilities for residents, among other issues.

Would the proposed developments continue to make our locality a living nightmare? Before these developments are approved, a national and a local master plan ought to be drawn up taking into consideration not only St. Julian’s and the surrounding areas but the whole country. Why has the Labour government dragged its feet and failed to publish the much awaited updated local plans as requested several times by the Opposition? We need to have good solid urban planning in place with tasteful aesthetic design. If the Knights of St John had taste and succeeded in building a city for gentlemen, why can’t we?

This also means having a good traffic, social and environmental impact assessments, in particular the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). Another question worth asking is: with all these developments, how will the skyline be affected? How about the rights of residents who would end up living in the shade of high-rise buildings? How would the buildings look from Valletta and other parts of the island? I believe the last report commissioned to study the feasibility and the impact of high-rise development in Malta was made in 2008.

I firmly recommend that all stakeholders, including residents and NGOs, ought to be truly involved in the whole process rather than merely ‘consulted’, without giving any weight to what they say.

We need a holistic approach rather than piecemeal planning policies. While I have no qualms in acknowledging that the previous Nationalist governments to a certain extent failed to holistically address the problem, the current Labour government not only has done nothing to restore the situation but further aggravated the situation. It is becoming clear that there were pre-electoral agreements. Chickens are queuing up to roost.

My main concern here is not only the sustainability of this frenetic development but the lack of a sound infrastructure in place. By the term ‘infrastructure’ I understand both the physical and the social dimension. With the additional intake of residents and tourists we need a reinforced physical infrastructure. We need better traffic management, better roads, friendly pavements, more open spaces, an improved drainage system and better parking facilities.

The social infrastructure implies improved garbage collections, crowd control policies, public facilities, green wardens, more police presence, less noise pollution, enforcement and security for residents, and in particular our elderly. We need to better balance the interests of the business owners with the right of residents to enjoy their quality of life. The impression given is that business owners are more equal than residents.

The St Julian’s local council is overwhelmed and its resources are stretched to the limit. Prior to the local council elections I had proposed, in a letter to residents, that one way of securing more funds was though financial contributions from tourists. Such funds would go to embellishment projects in the locality.

It is good to see that the current government took over this proposal. Unfortunately, it decided that the generated funds would not to be passed on to local councils to administer but rather to a central body. Hopefully, with our locality being a leading tourist contributor, it would benefit from such funds.

The end of the story of the tower of Babel was its destruction and the confusion which reigned afterwards.

Let us hope we work together so as to avoid a repeat.

(This article was published on Times of Malta – 24 June, 2016)