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| This previous Bondway site proposal, Octave, was denied planning permission |
According to the article:
McLaren Property and an undisclosed joint venture partner have placed under offer a 0.7 acre site next to Vauxhall station for £30m, under plans to develop one or more high-rise towers of up to 40 storeys. The site is home to Vauxhall Bondway Self-Storage, a building of around 100,000 sq ft.
McLaren declined to comment but is expected to devise plans for a scheme with residential, retail, student accommodation and a hotel. Last month, it completed a £43m forward-sale to Legal & General of a student accommodation scheme in Greenwich.
McLaren has submitted a "Request for a Scoping Opinion in respect of an Environmental Assessment" to Lambeth Planning. What is that?, I hear you ask.
My tame architect tells me (and thank you!) that developers can write to a council requesting an opinion on what information should be included within an Environmental Statement supporting a planning application. This is called a scoping opinion. Requests need to be accompanied by:
This can help a developer to identify key areas which should be covered (such as noise pollution or ecological impacts) and reduce subsequent delays in processing the application.The planning authority has a period of 5 weeks within which to produce an EIA scoping opinion, which can be extended if the developer agrees in writing to the extension. The planning authority is legally required to consult with the Environment Agency, Natural England, English Heritage and the Greater London Authority. Once the scoping opinion has been adopted, it is held in a public register for 2 years.
- a sufficient plan to identify the land
- a brief description of the proposed development's nature, purpose and possible effects upon the environment
- any information or representation from the developer.
The documents submitted contain only the minimum of information about the proposals:
The proposed Vauxhall Bondway Development is a high quality, residential-led, mixed use scheme that will involve the demolition of the existing buildings and the construction of two buildings comprising a mix of uses and new public realm. Initial proposals suggest the proposed development at approximately 180 meters AOD will provide:
- Circa. 300,000 square feet of residential
- Circa 45,000 square feet of office accommodation (B1) and 10,000 square feet retail accommodation (A1/A3-A5)
- Car parking and residential amenity space
Whilst considerable pre-planning studies have been completed, the design of the proposed development is still subject to an on-going evolutionary process as a result of pre-application consultation with anumber of consultees including the LBL and the GLA.At 180m the proposed development is 5m taller than the predecessor for the site - Octave Tower - which was denied planning permission, a decision upheld by the Secretary of State on appeal, citing these reasons (as summarised at the time by the much missed SE11 lurker):
The Secretary of State considered that the proposed Bondway's greatest shortcoming was the relationship of the building to its surroundings. Whilst the building was considered sustainable and with certain design merits, it lacked "well planned public open spaces" and the proposals apparently also failed to provide adequate pedestrian links to the wider public realm. In addition, the "visual mass" of the building was felt to be "overbearing in relation to its surroundings". Also, the Secretary of State agreed with the Planning Inspector that the lack of amenity space (particularly children's play area) could not be solved by the developer acquiring more land.
Sadly the demolition of the rather beautiful Victorian building (one of the few remaining marks of our Victorian heritage) seems inevitable.
I think the old proposal when it was in its final form was 149m not 175m. The 180m AOD means it's actually about 175m as AOD means above sea level not ground level.
ReplyDeletethey spent £30 milion for land. I wish they also hired an architect as well.
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