The Watkin Jones Group (WJG) seeks a variation to their planning application (Ref. 08/01365/FUL) to deliver a reconfigured residential mix at the former 11 Logie Green Road (Ref. 13/01990/PAN).
WJG wants to remove the 3 bedroom units; include a Class-1 retail element on the ground floor; build 24 one and two-bedroom flatted units on 3 upper floors; and remove the top floor.
By Spurtle’s reckoning, this is the fifth amendment/variation/change of use or alteration in the last five years.
Quite how all this squares with WJG's application to build ‘a surface car park and associated works’ (Ref. 13/00589/FUL), reported in Breaking news (12.3.13), remains to be seen. However, we advise locals to study any plans for retail space very carefully.
As part of the pre-application consultation, a public event will be held on Thursday 25 July (4pm–7pm) in St Philip’s Church Hall (over the road at 12–14 Logie Green Road).
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Planning permission was granted in 1997 to ‘reconstruct mews building’ to form a 2-storey mews house on this site (Ref. 97/01035/FUL), but after clearance and preparation of foundations in August 2002, and despite granting of a building Warrant in March 2003, the project was not finished. The area has been used as a 3-space car park since.
The new scheme would be almost the last redevelopment on this lane (just one, empty site remains, adjacent and also used for parking). FD says ‘The design has evolved taking into careful consideration the sensitive nature of the site due to its location in the Conservation area and the World Heritage Site and its close proximity to the listed buildings in Albany Street. The detailed design has been carefully considered drawing on the aspirations of the Development Plan design policies and Guidelines’.
'Due to the differences in levels and to the fairly recent developments in Dublin Street Lane South and other recently completed mews houses it was considered that the originally approved house could be improved upon. The introduction of the garden level gives access to what is currently overgrown land and this will be transformed into a landscaped garden adding to the amenity of the occupants. The height, scale and materials will all blend in well with the roofscape and streetscape to enhance the Conservation Area, the World Heritage Site and improve the setting of the listed buildings in Albany Street.'
It remains to be seen whether neighbours and Planning officials are so sanguine about the substantial increase in Format Design’s aspirations for the size of the property. But for what it’s worth, and from our position of Olympian ignorance, Spurtle rather likes the proposal. The lane already seems a jumble of inconsistent shapes, colours and sizes (like an American view of Scottish teeth), and this scheme would not, we think, make it any worse.
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A Council Planning report found the proposals acceptable, saying: ‘The change of use, subdivision and associate alterations will not adversely affect the special character or appearance of the listed building or that of the surrounding New Town Conservation Area and will no prejudice parking availability or the amenity of future and neighbouring users’.
Under a Section 75 agreement, the developer will pay £500 towards the Edinburgh City Car Club.
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Grant Management/EMA Architects seek permission to change vacant office space at 10 Annandale Street into a 3-bedroom flatted dwelling (Ref. 13/01940/FUL).
In former times, No. 10 was the site of the Dundonian Consulate.
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