Residential Scale Thresholds – Page 4
What changes for a scheme at 1, 5, 10, 50 and 150 homes and at 0.5 and 1 hectare.
Residential Scale Thresholds articles – page 4
167 articlesWaste storage and collection as unit numbers rise
Bin storage has to satisfy the collection authority and the ground floor plan at the same time. Work out the volume, the carry distances and the vehicle tracking before the layout is fixed.
Child yield and when play space becomes a requirement
Child yield comes from the unit schedule, not from judgement. Work it out before the layout is fixed, because finding several hundred square metres of playable space afterwards usually costs a plot.
Scale and the shift from delegated to committee decision
Crossing into committee adds six to twelve weeks and changes who you are persuading. Where delegation schemes draw the line, and how to programme backwards from a committee date.
The point at which a travel plan replaces a travel statement
A travel plan statement is a one off cost. A full travel plan is a five year monitoring obligation. Where the threshold sits, what monitoring involves, and what to resist in the drafting.
When a scheme becomes referable to the Mayor of London
More than 150 homes makes a London scheme referable, and floorspace, height and Metropolitan Open Land triggers catch others. Here is what Stage 1 and Stage 2 actually involve.
Phasing a scheme and when each threshold bites
Major status and EIA screening look at the whole project. Levy liability, gain plans and most conditions can work phase by phase, but only if the permission is drafted for it.
Site area: what to include inside the red line
Too tight and the access works are unauthorised. Too loose and you have bought major status, a flood risk assessment and a bigger biodiversity obligation.
Floorspace measurement and which figure a threshold uses
Gross internal, gross external, net internal and net lettable areas all come from the same drawings. Which one a threshold uses decides whether your scheme is major, and what it costs.
Student rooms, bedspaces and how thresholds are applied
A student block becomes major development on floorspace, not on unit count. Here is which figure each threshold uses, and why the conversion ratio should be agreed before the scheme is fixed.
Counting units where an existing dwelling is demolished
Demolish and rebuild, and gross and net unit counts stop agreeing. Here is which figure the major development test, affordable housing policy, the Community Infrastructure Levy and the biodiversity gain condition each rely on.
Splitting a site to stay under a threshold, and why it fails
Authorities assess related applications as one scheme, screen the whole project and apply the combined requirements. Declared phasing delivers the cash flow lawfully.
Greater London Authority referable thresholds explained
A referable application is decided by the borough, but only after the Mayor has been consulted twice. Here are the referral categories, the two stage process and the extra evidence a referable scheme needs.
Affordable housing tenure split on major sites
How much affordable housing is policy. What tenure it is gets negotiated, and on a 50 home scheme the split moves residual value more than the headline percentage.
Water efficiency and optional technical standards by scale
The 110 litre water standard and the accessibility requirements apply only where local policy adopts them, by condition. Here is what each demands in design terms.
Obligations and the levy at different scheme sizes
The levy is arithmetic and obligations are argument. Here is how the two divide at each scheme size, where they must not overlap, and what to budget.
Eighteen metres, seven storeys and Planning Gateway One
Reach 18 metres or seven storeys in a residential building and a fire statement becomes a validation requirement. Here is how the tests are measured and what to submit.
Householder or minor: where the single dwelling line falls
The householder category turns on the property and the kind of work, not the size. Here is where the line falls, and what changes when you land on the wrong side of it.
Self-build exemption from the infrastructure levy
The self-build exemption is worth thousands and is lost by paperwork more often than by anything else. The order of the forms is the whole game.
The 25 square metre biodiversity net gain exemption
Below 25 square metres of habitat and 5 metres of hedgerow, the biodiversity gain condition does not apply. The measurement is where the argument happens.
Nine units against ten and the affordable housing line
The tenth home moves a scheme into major development and into affordable housing policy. Whether nine is the better scheme depends on more than the contribution.
What changes at fifty dwellings
Fifty homes is where a minor developer's habits stop working. The transport, consultation and infrastructure evidence all steps up, and the programme has to change with it.
One hectare and the automatic flood risk requirement
Zone 1 does not mean no flood risk assessment. At 1 hectare or more the requirement applies automatically, and the document has to deal with surface water rather than with rivers.
Why 0.5 hectares matters as much as unit numbers
Major status can be triggered by site area rather than by dwelling count, and access strips, basins and buffers are usually what push a scheme over. Here is how the limbs work and how to draw the red line.
Health impact assessment thresholds and content
Establish whether an assessment is required, at what depth, and what the public health team expects, before writing anything. Thresholds, determinants and securing mitigation.
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