Scheme will deliver nine new homes on site of 1950s bungalow near Welwyn Garden City
A Hertfordshire council has approved proposals from architect GPAD for the redevelopment of an extended 1950s bungalow to deliver nine new homes in a village setting near Welwyn Garden City.
GPAD’s design for the 0.39ha plot at Digswell will see the removal of the current structure and the delivery of a two-storey apartment block with a “lower ground” level on the site.
It will contain eight two-bedroom apartments and one three-bedroom home. All properties would have their own electric vehicle charging point and a shed for storing bicycles.
Recommending the proposals for the approval of members of Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council’s Development Control Committee last week, planning officers acknowledged that GPAD’s design represented a “different form of development to the original character of the area”.
But they said the proposals were of a “good standard” and that similar developments of flats had been approved in recent years, meaning the principle of developing flats in the area was now established.
“The proposed building has been designed to have the appearance of a large residential dwelling with a single central entrance and therefore would not appear as a block of flats when viewed from the limited public vantage points on New Road,” officers said. “The development would be centrally sited within the plot and would be set well back.
“The proposed setback distance from the site frontage and the gaps to the boundaries would be reflective of the siting of a number of the dwellings in the vicinity.”
Officers accepted that GPAD’s proposals would represent an increase in bulk and massing compared with the current home on the site. Nevertheless they added: “It would not be disproportionately or incongruously large in the context of some of the other dwellings and flatted schemes in the surrounding area.”
GPAD said its material palette for the development had been inspired by the “rural vernacular” of traditional working buildings.
Developer ACRE’s project team also includes PHD Chartered Town Planners and Cornus Landscape.
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