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Plans have been submitted to convert the dilapidated former Water’s Edge Hotel into a new home, whilst refurbishing its café facilities and retaining the diving centre.
The new proposal would see a terraced granite home built on the site at Bouley Bay to replace the current deteriorating hotel, which has been described as an “eyesore” and has been closed for over five years.
CLICK TO ENLARGE: A new cafe will be created as part of the development.
Speaking to Express, Planning Consultant Michael Stein explained that the new proposal submitted to the Planning Department is for “a single dwelling, but retaining the dive centre, and also retaining a café/restaurant which is intended as a replacement for the Black Dog.”
The home is being planned following interest expressed to the owners of the site from someone who wants to live there.
Under the plans, 69% of the site is to be set aside for landscaping.
“The public benefit is you’re going to get much improved views to the sea when you come down the main road, and you’re going to get much improved views looking back at the hotel from the pier,” Mr Stein said.
He also said that compared to old plans for the hotel, which would have seen more than 3,600 cubic metres of spoil disposed at La Collette, this scheme would only result in 258 cubic metres of spoil requiring disposal.
CLICK TO ENLARGE: Planning Consultant Michael Stein said that 69% of the site would be landscaped.
The house itself will be built as a series of terraced granite walls which go back into the site, with each terrace being landscaped – Mr Stein said that this terraced layout would prevent it from becoming “a building going up to five stories hard up to the public realm.”
He added on the landscaping: “We’re doing this because we know it’s on the coastal national park – and the requirement and policy is to restore landscape character.”
Mr Stein also confirmed that the new café, taking the place of the Black Dog, would be around 1,200sqft, with the dive centre around 1,100sqft.
“We’ve had international architects prepare a scheme, and that’s been in front of the Jersey Architecture Commission who regard it as an exemplar design," he said.
“The new proposal is designed to follow the contours of the site used traditional materials, that sort of pay respect to the fortifications in the area.”
In regards to the surrounding area, Mr Stein said that the applicant had no jurisdiction on the Bay beyond their premises, and that "the café, Mad Mary, is not on land within the applicant's ownership so is a matter that is simply outside the applicant's control, but we are aware the Constable is looking into this matter."
Mary Tunney, who has run Mad Mary's for 16 years, told Express however that she had not been properly reached out to about the matter, saying "it would be nice if someone or anybody had or would speak to me."
She added how she is "so proud" of her café, and that: "I just want security in my business - I just want to know that the café will stay."
A public exhibition of plans was held for stakeholders on 25 and 26 May, with Mr Stein noting they had got a “mostly positive response” from the public.
Should the planning application be passed, Mr Stein said that he would “like to think the application process would be complete by the end of this year, and then after that it would take between 18 months and two years to complete the building.”
Previous planning applications had seen the site approved to be converted into 25 self-catered apartments – this approval is in perpetuity, so could still happen if this new application does not go ahead.
However, if approved, these new plans are the intended development for the Water's Edge Hotel site.
The planning application has now been submitted, and is in the process of being registered.
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