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The ‘gateway’ building proposed to be built near the bottom of Gloucester Street as part of a major transformation of the Waterfront area is halving in height from 16 storeys to eight.
The apartment block is part of the Jersey Development Company’s plans for ‘Southwest St. Helier’, which involves developing the land between JDC’s existing International Finance Centre and Horizon projects.
Plans include a leisure centre on the site of the current swimming pool, a new slipway at West Park, 1,001 homes, a boardwalk pier, new public gardens and open spaces, an arthouse cinema and a lido outdoor swimming pool.
As part of the initially proposed plans, the tallest building across the development would be a 16-storey tower built at the western apex of the Esplanade car park, close to where the Esplanade joins Route de la Liberation.
This would be clearly prominent to people coming into town from the west and was designed to act as a ‘gateway’ to the development and town as a whole.
Pictured: An artist's impression of some of the planned residential blocks at the Waterfront.
However, after the second stage of public consultation, which took place in May, the building’s height was reduced to 12 storeys, and it has since been reduced further to eight.
JDC Chief Executive Lee Henry said: “Due to the elections, we have taken the opportunity to engage further with the authorities on the proposals.
“There will be some adjustments to the plans being worked on at the moment and there will be a further engagement with the public prior to those plans being amended.
“We had a 16-storey building originally proposed but the feedback from the consultation is that that was too tall and that was reduced to 12 storeys and it will probably end up being eight storeys.”
He added: “When you look at some of the rarefied views, the 12 storeys worked when you looked at the site in a blinkered way, in the sense that you had Horizon, then it dropped down and rose up to the gateway building.
“But when you widen that aspect to the rest of St. Helier, it did stand out as an odd intrusion to the skyline.”
Mr Henry added that the halving of the building’s height from 16 storeys to eight would not have an impact on the project’s overall housing provision as it was hoped that the leisure centre building, on top of which there will be homes, could take an extra one or two storeys.
Pictured: An image of the 'gateway' building before plans were revised to halve its height.
Outline plans for the 10-year Southwest St. Helier project have been submitted and the application will be the subject of an independent planning inquiry, expected to take place later this year.
The Government planning guidance around the project, issued in 2019, states: “The opportunity exists for a bold approach to the siting and design of a tall building, but it is essential that the local community is involved, by the developer, in the site selection and design process from the outset. It may be that any such proposals might also be the subject of an architectural competition, to ensure the quality of any emergent scheme.
“To this end, the proportion of a tall building – the relation between its height and width – must be graceful from all viewpoints, including views from a distance.
“Given the subjective nature of this requirement, all development proposals for tall buildings within the area will be referred to the Jersey Architecture Commission for assessment prior to the determination of a planning application.
“In the event that a tall building is considered to be appropriate, in terms of this guidance and all other material considerations, then it would be desirable if upper floor(s) could be made available as a publicly accessible facility, such as restaurant, coffee lounge or art gallery in order to allow the public to enjoy the panoramic views offered.”
However, the recently published Bridging Island Plan gives a specific “height guidance” of up to eight stories for the “new Waterfront” area.
It adds: “Development of a tall building of over eight storeys within Town will only be supported in appropriate circumstances and where the overall benefit to the community will demonstrably outweigh any adverse impacts.”
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