Trio line up York approvals
Heritage specialist PJ Livesey hopes for success at The Retreat, while architect Mikhail Riches has designed affordable homes at Ordnance Lane for the council. Persimmon is tipped to advance at Hull Road, with all three proposals being for 100+ homes.
City of York Council’s planning committee meets on 1 August to consider the various proposals.
The Retreat
PJ Livesey, which has built up a reputation over many years for sensitively restoring and bringing into residential use historic buildings, wants to redevelop the listed Retreat complex off Heslington Road.
The developer is working with a team including landscape architect Randall Thorp, transport advisor Vectos, heritage firm AHP, Pegasus and Savills.
Grade two-listed, the complex was originally developed in the 1790s as a mental asylum. In a scheme that has grown from an initial 95 homes, PJ Livesey wants tyo bring 120 homes to the site, mostly within a redevelopment of the listed buildings. The project will remove unlisted elements at the site.
PJ Livesey is a renovation specialist. Credit: PJ Livesey
Of the homes, the majority would be two- and three-bedroom, with 45 homes and 52 respectively. Eighteen new build homes would be added at the eastern part of the site. Parking would be reconfigured, with 220 spaces in all, 30 of them for visitors.
With conditions for off-site affordable homes and education contributions attached, approval is recommended, subject to referral to the Secretary of State.
Ordnance Lane
At a development site between Hospital Fields Road and Ordnance Lane, the city has proposed a scheme of 101 homes.
Key advisors include Tibbalds Planning & Urban Design, along with Mikhail Riches, the architect recently recognised with a national RIBA award at Park Hill, Sheffield.
The professional team led by Turner & Townsend includes Civic Engineers, Simply CDM, Green Gauge, BBUK, Imagine Places and Warm.
The scheme is now 100% affordable. Credit: planning documents
The project includes the demolition of existing buildings, the redevelopment of the building known as “The Married Quarters” and the erection of new-builds, to make up a scheme comprising 112 homes. It will also include around 1,500 sq ft each of commercial and community floorspace.
The plans replace an earlier iteration for 85 homes, removing some commercial space and now being 100% affordable. Around half the homes planned are two-bedroom, and the new-builds are intended to be Passivhaus-certified.
Hull Road
Persimmon, the housing giant headquartered in York, wants to develop 153 homes at a site south of Hull Road, Heslington.
The project was first put forward in 2015, and this latest iteration is a hybrid application, covering full consent for 153 homes and outline consent for nine self-build/custom plots.
Persimmon’s site is currently undeveloped, sloped and is bounded by hedgerows. To the north is the dual carriageway Hull Road, along with a petrol station, large B&Q, and electricity distribution site.
To the east is an access road to the University east campus and the Grimston Bar park and ride, with the wooded Kimberlow Hill and the east campus to the south and Field Lane and the Badger Hill area to the west.
There are 30 apartments within the housing mix, and 49 of the full-consent tranche of 153 homes will be affordable. Sizes run from one to four bedrooms.
Only six objections Have been logged in the decade that the site has been in the pipeline.
Approval is recommended, with the affordable element set at 13 first homes and 36 social rent.
The PJ Livesey application can be viewed on York’s planning portal with the reference 22/02257/FULM. The Ordnance Lane project reference is 24/00221/FULM and the Persimmon project 15/00166/FULM.
