New Leale’s Yard plan features fewer homes
FEWER homes than originally planned could be built on Leale’s Yard, due to the planned construction method.
There is already outline planning permission in place for 338 residential units, 5,800sq.m of retail floor space, 8,000sq.m of commercial floorspace and a multi-storey car park on the site behind the Bridge.
But the new joint application from Omnibus Investment Holding Ltd and site owners the Channel Islands Co-Operative Society is planning to reduce that to 296 homes, along with 4,058sq.m of retail floor space, 5,380sq.m of office space and circa 787sq.m of commercial floor space, as well as the multi-storey car park. There is also set to be 18 three-bed townhouses, which were detailed in an earlier outline planning application.
If the latest plans are approved, there would be 314 homes.
The new application comes after investigations began into a proposed new modular construction supplier.
‘Following a review of the new supplier’s products and systems, it became apparent that the new format would require fundamental changes to the residential block layouts,’ said Matthew Slinn from Bath-based architects SRA.
‘This naturally led to a more holistic review of the proposals as a whole, culminating in the design you see presented here.
‘It is the applicant’s intention that the scheme retains many of the principles set out in the original consented scheme, as well as adhering to the design principles set out in the 2020 Leale’s Yard Regeneration and Development Framework.’
It was announced earlier this year that investigations were under way to look at using modular construction to kick-start the long-stationary project on the 13-acre brownfield site.
It is hoped it could be quicker, cheaper and would require less labour on-island.
The latest plans are still for outline permission, which means there are still many details to be developed.
But the plan does include a layout, which shows the access would be from the Bridge, with a new two-storey food store directly behind the existing shop fronts.
In the new plans the four-storey car park has been separated from the Co-op and will now stand alongside it.
The height of the parking deck has also been reduced to be less visually dominant.
There would then be seven blocks dotted around the site, which are largely residential, with some retail on the ground floor.
Two office blocks and a commercial block would be at the back of the site, backing on to Lowlands Road.
The three tallest blocks would be six storeys high, but these would be in the middle of the site.
The other buildings are between two and four storeys tall.
Only the largely residential blocks were rearranged and redistributed to suit the implications of the new modular supplier. The homes would largely be one- and two-bed flats.
The commercial development zone was also redesigned.
The plans can be viewed at www.gov.gg/liveplanningapplications
