18 March 2016
Jersey’s Planning Applications Committee has turned down two applications for developments in the Coastal National Park.
The owners of a two-storey 1950s house on the coastal headland at La Moye, St Brelade had applied (P/2015/1682) to replace it with a five-bedroom home with staff accommodation, garage, swimming pool, pergolas, and terracing and landscaping. The application included significant environmental improvements on the headland down to the water’s edge.
A plan to replace the former Blue Fountain restaurant, on La Route de la Pulente (PP/2015/1422) with two new homes was also rejected by the Planning Applications Committee. It didn’t meet strict Island Plan conditions for new residential development in the Coastal National Park.
The two sites lie in quite different areas of the Coastal National Park, but in both cases Planning Applications Committee members expressed concern at the scale and impact of the new buildings in the landscape.
The Island Plan policy for the Coastal National Park zone provides the highest level of protection from development and the committee considered that applications for replacement buildings which are larger than the existing property should not normally be approved.
New facilities for farm
A Trinity farm that supports local vegetable growers was yesterday given permission to construct facilities to support the new business.
Woodside Farms Ltd. took over production of seasonal vegetables from Amal-Grow when it left the industry.
Woodside provides a packaging service to local vegetable growers. It applied to build a commercial shed and glasshouse, a reservoir/pond, car parking, landscaping and drainage in five fields near La Rue Coutanche in Trinity.
In its application P/2015/1755 Woodside Farms said the proposal to build new facilities followed an unsuccessful search for suitable facilities near the existing farm.
The site is in the Green Zone, where new development is only allowed in certain exceptional circumstances and where buildings won’t have a significant impact on the landscape.
According to the Planning Department report, there is a strong business case for the development. The Economic Development Department provides support to Woodside Farms through the Rural Initiative Scheme on the basis that local food production is important for Jersey.
Esplanade Quarter
The Planning Applications Committee also agreed a new application (P/2015/1920) by the States of Jersey Development Company for Building 5, Esplanade Quarter.
Building 5 will be a six-storey office building on the south-east corner of the current Esplanade car park, providing 69,000 square feet of office accommodation, with 49 basement car parking spaces.
The Planning Applications Committee approved an application for Building 5 in April 2015. This application is the subject of a third party appeal which is due to be heard by an independent inspector next week.
The current application, considered yesterday, proposed the same building but removed areas of temporary landscape works, and car parking (now the subject of a separate application).
The Planning Department report on the application stated that the design of the building is high quality, fits with the planning guidelines, and is a suitable partner to Building 4.
There were nine objections to the application, mainly concerned with the wider delivery of the Masterplan, rather than the building itself.
Building 5 is the fourth part of the first phase of the Esplanade Quarter Masterplan to be considered. Building 4 was approved in August 2013, and Building 1 and the underground car park agreed in January 2014.
gov.je