Issue - meetings

Issue - meetings

23/00693/FUL: Site of 6-25 Pusey Lane and 19-21 St John Street and rear of 7-11 John Street, Oxford

 

 

Meeting: 21/11/2023 - Planning - Oxford City Planning Committee (Item 44)

44 23/00693/FUL: Site of 6-25 Pusey Lane and 19-21 St John Street, Oxford pdf icon PDF 945 KB

Site Address:

Site Of 6-25 Pusey Lane and 19-21 St John Street

Proposal:

Demolition of Nos. 6-25 Pusey Lane. Erection of 2-3 storey terraced building to provide new student accommodation. Demolition of rear outrigger extensions to nos. 20 & 21 St John Street. Erection of single storey common room building to the rear of nos. 20 & 21 St John Street. Re-landscaping of the existing amenity areas to the rear of nos. 7-11 and 19-21 St John Street, including demolition/alteration of rear plot boundary walls

Reason at Committee:

The proposal is a major development

Recommendation:

The Oxford City Planning Committee is recommended to:

1.     approve the application for the reasons given in the report subject to the required planning conditions set out in section 12 of this report and grant planning permission subject to:

·        the satisfactory completion of a legal agreement under section.106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 or Unilateral Undertaking and other enabling powers to secure the planning obligations set out in the recommended heads of terms which are set out in this report; and

2.     delegate authority to the Head of Planning and Regulatory Services to:

·        finalise the recommended conditions as set out in this report including such refinements, amendments, additions and/or deletions as the Head of Planning and Regulatory Services considers reasonably necessary; and

·        finalise the recommended legal agreement or Unilateral Undertaking under section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and other enabling powers as set out in this report, including refining, adding to, amending and/or deleting the obligations detailed in the heads of terms set out in this report (including to dovetail with and where appropriate, reinforce the final conditions and informatives to be attached to the planning permission) as the Head of Planning and Regulatory Services considers reasonably necessary; and

·         on receipt of the completed section 106 legal agreement or Unilateral Undertaking and issue the planning permission.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor Clarkson left the room and Councillor Hollingsworth took the chair.

(Note: as they related to the same site, applications 23/00693/FUL and 23/00694/LBC were considered together).

The Committee considered applications (23/00693/FUL and 23/00694/LBC) for the demolition of nos. 6-25 Pusey Lane and erection of a 2-3 storey terraced building to provide new student accommodation; demolition of rear outrigger extensions to nos. 20 and 21 St John Street; erection of single storey common room building to the rear of nos. 20 and 21 St John Street; and re-landscaping of the existing amenity areas to the rear of nos. 7-11 and 19-21 St John Street, including demolition/alteration of rear plot boundary walls.

The Planning Officers gave a presentation and highlighted the following:

·       The application site encompassed a series of 1970s mews buildings fronting Pusey Lane containing 22 garages on the ground floor and 9 self-contained flats on the upper floors for graduate students of St John’s College; a disused early C20 building on the corner of Pusey Lane and Pusey Street known as The Lighting Store; and the rear gardens of 7-11 and 19-21 St John’s Street, all of which were owned by St John’s College.

 

·       The proposal included demolition of The Lighting Store and the mews buildings replacing them with a linear, terraced development consisting of 5 individual houses and 8 self-contained flats which would provide purpose-built accommodation for 33 students.  The outer edges of the terrace would be two storeys with rooms in the pitched roof, and the central section was of lower height to correspond with the properties on the rear of St John Street which were privately owned and residential.  The height of the development would be the same as the highest point of the existing mews buildings in this location.

 

·       The proposal also included demolition of the rear outriggers at 20-21 St John Street, to be replaced with a single storey glass and brick extension.  The outrigger adjacent to 18 St John’s Street would be retained. 

 

·       The building had been articulated and the windows varied to correspond with the buildings opposite and optimise the use of light, in order to provide good quality accommodation for the graduate students.

 

·       The development included a high quality landscape scheme in the rear gardens of the St John’s Street houses involving the removal of a large number of poor quality trees and replacement with new species which would replace the canopy cover over 25 years.  There would be no harm to the public amenity as a result of the tree removals.  The houses and flats would have direct access for students into the shared courtyard gardens, offering significantly improved amenity space for residents.  The landscape design included rain gardens, sustainable drainage and enhanced greening of Pusey Lane, as well as relaying of the cobblestones to the front on Pusey Lane.

 

·       Officers were of the view that the development would result in a high quality, highly sustainable design which would be of an appropriate scale, height and massing to its surroundings  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44