PPA | Hillside House, 1-2 Hillside, Cotham

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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