297 co-living units at Mary Arches Street Car Park, Exeter

The site and surroundings

The site is a brownfield city-centre car park within the Central Conservation Area, near listed buildings, archaeological remains and protected trees.

“Description of site The 0.49-hectare site is within the historic centre of the City of Exeter and occupies the core of a city block with complex boundaries. It has highway frontages on Mary Arches Street, Bartholomew Street East, North Street, Synagogue Place, and Mitre Lane.”

“The site includes a number of mature trees that are protected by virtue of being in a Conservation Area. Trees on the street frontages at Mary Arches Strreet, Mitre Lane and Bartholemew Street East make a positive visual contribution towards the character and appearance of wider area. Trees on site were mixed species planted as part of previous development of the site.”

Officer report

Earlier decisions and changes

The car parks were closed by a 2022 council decision, and the proposal was revised to alter the footprint, façade, unit numbers and internal arrangements.

“The development has been revised since first submitted to reconfigure building footprint, reduce number of co-living units, to revise façade design, and to change internal, entrance and circulation arrangements.”

Officer report

Who spoke

Councillor Moore spoke about local concerns, the Civic Society spoke against the application, and the applicant’s representative spoke in support.

What the committee decided

The committee deferred the application so officers and the applicant could discuss scale, massing, street-facing design and report back to a later meeting.

“RESOLVED that the Committee DEFER determination of the application, on the grounds that further discussions were required between officers and the applicant to address:”

“the scale and massing of the proposed development; • the design quality and treatment of the street-facing elevations; and • that these matters be explored and reported back to a subsequent meeting of the Planning Committee.”

Minutes