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PRE-APPLICATION BRIEFING BY THE DEVELOPER - West's Garage site, 217 Newmarket Road. The site lies at the
corner of Newmarket Road and River Lane. It is has been occupied since the
1950’s by a motor vehicle business. The site is not allocated in the Cambridge
Local Plan (2006), nor in the Cambridge Development
Plan 2014 Draft Submission. It does however, lie within the area of the Eastern
Gate SPD, and within the Eastern Gate Opportunity Area in the Draft Submission.
The site falls
outside any conservation area, but the boundary of the Riverside section of
Central Conservation Area runs along the western and northern boundaries of the
site. The applicants intend to come forward with proposals to remove all
of the existing buildings on the site and to redevelop the site for student
accommodation. It is intended to re-develop the site in line with the Eastern
Gate SPD in terms of the scale of the building and to provide in the region of
200 student rooms for occupation by students of one of the cities two
universities together with recreation space and associated landscaping. The current scheme has been developed following a previous refusal
of planning permission at the site for the erection of new student housing (202
study bedrooms) and associated communal facilities, cycle parking, and external
landscaping following demolition of the existing buildings. The application (ref 14/1154/FUL) was refused
at planning committee in May 2015. The 6
reasons for refusal related to: ·
Height/massing and relationship with
the Corner House public house. ·
Relationship and sense of dominance to
River Lane properties. ·
Impact on properties on Godesdone Rd (sense of dominance and design) ·
Poor amenity for future occupants ·
Lack of occupancy restriction to
students. ·
Lack of S106 contributions provision
for open space, sports facilities and public art. Since the refusal of planning permission, significant changes have
been made to the design and layout of the scheme to address the previous
concerns and the agents/applicants have also engaged with the local residents. This briefing is intended for officers and the applicants/agents
to update Members on progress to date and to discuss the key issues ahead of
submission for a formal new application. Minutes: Attendees: Councillors
Blencowe, Hipkin, Johnson and Smart Officers: Lisa
Lamb – Principal Planning Officer (Chair) Lorraine
Casey – Principal Planning Officer Presenters: Justin
Bainton – Januarys (Planning Agent) Paul
O’Connell (Architect) Christian Davis - Three Sixty Developments Declarations
of Personal or Prejudicial Interest: None Introduction
The Chair explained the role and purpose of
pre-application developer presentations to Councillors and the format of the
meeting. She referred to the guidance contained in the agenda. Presentation by
the Developer Team
Justin
Bainton provided a brief summary of the proposal, which seeks to redevelop the site for student accommodation (195
bedrooms) and that the scheme has been developed since a previous proposal for
student accommodation on the site was refused for 6 reasons. JB explained the
agents are aiming to submit an application in December 2015. Paul O’Connell provided an in-depth explanation of
the current scheme and how it has been developed to respond to the previous
reasons for refusal. A number of images were shown of the proposals including floor plans,
elevations, perspectives, and viewpoints.
He referred to the site having two separate
contexts – River Lane (2-storey domestic) and Newmarket Road (5-6 storey commercial). The proposed development is intended to
act as a bridge in scale of the two contexts, and seeks to split up the mass of
the building into two separate blocks. Compared to previous scheme, the
building has been set further back from River Lane and reduced in scale to
2-storey adjacent to the western boundary. Proposals to provide a landscaped
treatment to the Newmarket Road/River Lane corner are currently being
developed. POC explained, with regard to the neighbour amenity
impacts, that the window positions are designed to prevent overlooking of
adjacent dwellings. There is a minimum of 40m from first floor windows in the
west elevation and rear of properties in Godestone
Road and there are no gable windows directly adjacent the western boundary. A
shadow study has been undertaken which purports to demonstrate the development
would not give rise to unacceptable shading of adjacent dwellings. In terms of
the amenities of occupiers, the current proposal includes increased bedroom
widths compared to the previous scheme. JB advised that, at this stage, the intended
occupier of the development would be ARU. He also explained that the proposal
was discussed at the Council’s Design and Conservation Panel on 7/10/15 and
that the response was generally positive (6 amber and 2 greens). A management
plan would be submitted as part of the application. It is intended the site
would be managed 24 hours and there would be a designated community contact
based on site. Member questions and Developer responses Cllr Hipkin – does the corner building contain
student accommodation? Paul O’Connell – confirmed not at ground floor,
upper levels only Cllr
Johnson – Commended the work done on improving the concept compared to previous
scheme but queried:
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