Hillside House, 1- Hillside, Cotham PROFESSIONAL PLANNING APPRAISAL
4. OPPORTUNITIES
4.1 Policy BCS5 supports housing in the built-up area and the highly sustainable location
of the site in accessibility terms makes it suited to a residential use.
4.2 The vertical sub-division of the two villas (through the infilling of gaps in the party
wall) to reinstate two separate houses would deliver heritage gain, and would be
likely to be supported by the Council in view of the shortage of large family housing
in this part of the city.
4.3 A flatted conversion (C3 Use Class not C4) should be acceptable despite the high
proportion of flats in the area bearing in mind the size of the villas, which might
render the reinstatement of two houses financially unviable. It is noted that nos. 5
and 6 Hillside have been converted into flats and although the applications were
approved under the previous Development Plan, they are still relevant material
considerations (albeit of moderate weight).
4.4 The highly sustainable location of the site should mean that a reduced parking level
below the adopted (maximum) standards could be supported.
4.5 The site is in Flood Zone 1 (Low Risk) and as such, is sequentially preferable in flood
risk terms for housing.
5. DEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL
5.1 The site is considered suitable for a residential conversion to reinstate two houses or
provide flats (Use Class C3). These are likely to be restricted to the C3 use class due
to the high proportion of HMOs and student housing in the area.
5.2 It should be possible to achieve one flat per floor (likely to be a combination of two
and three bedroom), totalling eight flats within two buildings. This would avoid any
need to provide on-site affordable housing as part of the application 6 . It should be
noted that submitting two separate applications for the conversion in an attempt
6 The national threshold is 10 or more dwellings or site areas of 0.5 ha or more.
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