Rockmount, a dilapidated white two-storey building near Mont Gras d’Eau, is now due to be demolished and replaced with a five-bedroom home in the style of a traditional Jersey longhouse, complete with swimming pool.
Outlining the application, Peter Le Gresley, director of planning, said although the existing house had ‘some charm’ it was poorly built and had been modified in ways that ‘did not add to its architectural value’.
‘It is of a poor structural quality and the department is agreeable in principle. This is in the built-up area and the proposals are within planning policy,’
he said.
‘The proposed building has been designed to sit atop of the site of the existing building so that it takes no more of the footprint. It is to be set back into the green backdrop and importantly, it will sit around 800 millimetres lower from the ridgeline than the existing property on the site.’
He added that the Jersey Architecture Commission had commented on the application, and said the development had ‘huge potential’ and that it ‘has the potential to be an award-winning significant new addition to the Island’. Meanwhile, Moz Scott, chairman of the St Brelade’s Bay Association, which has historically objected to a number of developments in the area, said they fully supported the plans.
‘We thank the owner and architect for taking the trouble to listen to the concerns of the local community in producing this design and request the Planning Committee approve this exciting application,’ she said.
Mark and Samantha Smith, the applicants, also spoke during the meeting and said they had worked hard to ensure their plans were sensitive to the area.
‘I have had business associations with Jersey for 15 years now and St Brelade’s Bay is a place that I have got to know and got to love and understand the sensitivities of the bay,’ Mr Smith
said.
‘What we have tried to do over the course of the past few years is engage – engage with the neighbours and the SBBA. It would be tough to accuse us of not doing our homework and appreciating the sensitivities of this site and I think we have come up with something very beautiful.’
The couple added that they had been renting properties since they moved to Jersey around four years ago and the approval of their application would allow them to finally have their own home.
Planning Committee members Deputies Russell Labey and Graham Truscott, along with Constables Philip Le Sueur and Deidre Mezbourian, all eventually approved the application.
Mrs Mezbourian said: ‘I am pleased to see the way this design blends into the background and setting. I have not been on this committee very long but it is really good to see something brought to us in the St Brelade’s Bay area that is acceptable.
‘My view is that it ticks all the boxes.’
