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The Planning Authority will consider a rare application that proposes a development that would be much less visually intrusive than previously approved projects.
On September 12, the planning committee will meet to decide whether to approve a Lidl supermarket and a car park to be built on the site of the closed Generic soft drinks factory in Qormi, replacing the 150 apartments and three showrooms already approved.
The project is a joint initiative between Lidl and the Mizzi Group, whose subsidiary is the Universal Soft Drinks Company, currently based in Marsa.
The only downside is that part of the supermarket faces a residential area, and according to planning policy, supermarkets are only allowed to be opened in residential areas if there are “strong planning reasons”.
The proposed supermarket will front both Mdina Road, which is designated as a commercial area, and Triq il-Vitorja Street, which is designated as a residential area.
According to the case officer’s report recommending the development, the proposed demolition of the residential building and showroom and replacement with a low-rise supermarket structure and open carpark will inevitably have less visual impact on the surrounding environment while generating less traffic than the approved development.
Transport Malta also approved the development because it expects lower trips than residential developments approved in 2021. According to a traffic impact study, the supermarket is expected to generate between 120 and 146 car trips during peak hours, while the residential development will generate between 157 and 305 car trips during peak hours.
Initially approved in 2021, the residential project is located on a 7,558 square metre site at the former Coca-Cola bottling plant.
According to the project architect, the supermarket will have a vehicle entrance from Mdina Road to allow for smooth access to the car park. Customer vehicles will only be able to exit via Triq il-Vitorja. Unloading vehicles will enter the site from Mdina Road to avoid any impact on residential facilities.
Furthermore, the traffic study concluded that the supermarket would absorb existing traffic on the network and reduce pressure on the roundabouts at either end of Triq Manuel Dimech by creating a more convenient supermarket for customers coming from the west.
The supermarkets, with heights ranging from 4.50 to 7.94 metres, will be oriented towards Triq il-Vitorja, while the remaining residential building (consisting of only four apartments) will be located in Triq Alexandra and will have a height of 17.50 metres.
Although the Planning Authority’s supermarket regulation policy states that “all major supermarkets should be subject to a retail impact assessment” to assess their impact on trade in the area where they are located, the case officer concluded that such an assessment was “meaningless” given the site’s location and the zoning.
The supermarket will be located in a catchment area between the Pavi supermarket in Qormi and the future supermarket on the former SWM Cortis premises in Zebbuġ.
The proposal includes 122 parking spaces in the supermarket’s open-air car park. The Planning Authority’s parking calculation formula requires one parking space for every 10 square metres of customer floor area, which in this case is 1,200 square metres. This means the car park will provide the required 120 spaces.
On the other hand, the parking scheme requires one parking space per apartment and two parking spaces per penthouse. While the supermarket’s parking needs are met by open-air parking, no parking spaces are provided for the four residential units in Triq Alexandra. Therefore, a contribution of €23,000 is required to the Authority’s Urban Improvement Fund to compensate for the shortage of these parking spaces.
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