Jerma brief: Government will allow eight-storey development

The government has given its seal of approval to a development brief on the site of the former Jerma Palace Hotel at Marsaskala.

The brief will allow development for a gross floor area of 65,000sq.m, of which 26,000sqm will be residential. At an average floor space of 150sq.m for each residential unit, this will amount to over 150 new apartments.

Effectively the brief increases the developable footprint of the Jerma site from its present 8,700sq.m to 17,700sq.m, by extending development beyond the present hotel to a ‘podium’ set below street-level, but also limited to 52% of the present site coverage.

Of the total gross floor area, 33,000sq.m will be allocated for tourism and conference facilities, swimming pools, gyms and health clubs. A remaining 6,000sq.m can be allocated to commercial development, with 4,200sq.m for food and drink establishments, and 1,800sq.m for retail.

Buildings will not exceed 32m above the mean sea level, and limited to 9m above the St Thomas Tower. Considering that the street level is already 7.8m above sea level, this would result in an eight-storey development.

The blocks must include a central plaza, interspersed by landscaped public open spaces to reintroduce “a strong visual link between the historic tower and the sea”.

The development brief offers little in terms of solutions to the traffic volumes generated from the development. A high volume of traffic will be generated in Triq il-Qaliet, especially between Triq il-Miġbħa and Triq il-Maqsab, where traffic entering the development meets traffic exiting the development. “The links between junctions seem to be reaching capacity – this is not considering the amount of natural traffic increase that will occur over the years due to the increase of small and medium scale projects which will occur in Marsaskala and the southern part of Zabbar,” the brief states.

Moreover these road links can only be improved by “drastic action” – such as the removal of on-street parking. Already the two ends of the Marsaskala Bypass have already been committed with direct access onto the main road and therefore cannot be widened. The promenade in Marsaskala will also see a high increase in traffic, with the likelihood that this pedestrian-friendly area will become congested for long periods in the afternoons.

The brief also includes plans for a public open space in the immediate precincts of St Thomas Tower, which will be contiguous with the open spaces within the site of the ex-Jerma hotel. This will be supported by the re-routing of traffic from Triq is-Salini to Dawret it-Torri along the northern aspect of the tower towards Triq Wignacourt, Triq il-Katakombi, Triq de Rohan and then towards Dawret it-Torri along the southern aspect of the tower and then along Triq ir-Ridott.

James Debono is MaltaToday’s chief reporter on environment, planning and land use issues, …