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Planning is recommending that an application to build a 50-bed care home and fundraising shop for Jersey Hospice at Fauvic Nurseries in Grouville is refused - but has supported an application for a cannabis farm nearby.
The proposals will be determined by the Planning Committee – which is made up of politicians led by Trinity Constable Philip Le Sueur – on Thursday, but a Planning Officer always makes a formal recommendation beforehand.
The Fauvic application, which is considered a major one, seeks to demolish four greenhouses to construct the care home and charity shop.
It includes creating a ‘woodland amenity’ on part of a field, demolishing two chimneys, moving the parish recycling bins, and installing eight solar panel arrays.
An existing petanque terrain would also be moved.
The application has generated 53 public comments – 35 against, 17 for and one neutral. One of the main objections was it constituted overdevelopment in the countryside.
Pictured: Fauvic Nurseries is south of St. Clement's Inner Road.
In recommending refusal, Planning Officer Jonathan Durbin writes: “The proposed development, while having clear economic benefits and would provide care home places, would nonetheless result in significant harm to the characters and appearance of the countryside in this locality, resulting in unsustainably located development that would be harmful to highway safety.
“It is considered that the harm arising outweighs the benefit of this proposal.
“In particular, it is considered that there is a land-use planning need for the care home or the fundraising shop or that such need, if it did exist, could not be met elsewhere in the island.”
The application has been submitted at the same time as a separate application to development another part of Fauvic Nurseries.
This second application – to demolish or part-demolish disused greenhouses and upgrade them to grow cannabis for medicinal products – will also be considered by the Planning Committee on Thursday.
This proposal – which is not dependent on the first application – is recommended for approval by the same Planning Officer.
FOCUS: Cannabis, care, retail... a lesson in 'diversification'
Plans for cannabis farm, care home and charity shop in Grouville
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