Urban village vision for ex-uni campus
A planning application has been made to convert the former University of West of Scotland campus in Hamilton into an urban village.
Planning permission in principle for the huge residential and retail development was granted by the council in February 2018 with plans to have the village built in the next 15 to 20 years.
A new application has been made for the approval of specific matters for the development, including a change to increase the number of affordable homes in the development from 25 per cent to 46.5 per cent.
A report that has gone before the council says: “The development will extend in total to 10.23 acres and represents the former Bell College Campus of UWS together with land and buildings owned by SLC, the majority of which is currently used for car parking.
“UWS have now completed the new UWS campus in Blantyre which opened in September 2018, and SLC are considering options for their car parking, which will potentially allow further land release in the coming years.”
The proposal will see the former campus eventually being converted to allow for 355 residential units, a 70 bed care home, a 60 to 80 bed hotel, space for 5000 square metres of office space and 400 square metres of retail and cafe spaces.
The residential aspect of the development will consist of flats and houses with 14 per cent of the units being for Clyde Valley Housing Association, 31.1 per cent of the units being for South Lanarkshire Council (SLC), 46.5 per cent being private units and 8.4 per cent of the homes for private retirement units.
A total of 94 per cent of the homes will be flats with six per cent being houses.
There will be a range of one, two and three bedroom flats which will be private, and there will be 24 housing association flats with two bedrooms and a range of one and two bed council flats as well as 17 two, three and four bedroom council houses.
The houses on the site will be for SLC.
The village will provide a highly accessible environment for residents and members of the public. There will be 19 accessible parking bays and dedicated accessible space for each flat which has been designed for wheelchair use.
A landscaped plaza with greenspace areas and a pedestrian and cycle route has been proposed with seating areas with arms and backrests as well as individual seats to allow for wheelchair users to sit with others.
A range of trees and hedges will be planted throughout the village to provide greenspace and will contrast the built-up urban area.
The current site has 201 parking spaces, but the application proposed to increase this to 303 to accommodate the new residents and visitors to the village.
Another report says the first phase of development at Hamilton Green will be 286 residential units.
It says: “The housing comprises 40 (14%) units for Clyde Valley Housing Association, 89 (31.1%) units for South Lanarkshire Council, 133 (46.5%) private units, and 24 (8.4%) private retirement units. Most of the units (94%) will be flats. Only 17 (6%) of the council house units will be houses.”
The housing development will have three points of vehicular access to the surrounding public road network. These are Arthur Street, Barrack Street and Beckford Street.
Regarding the traffic impact, the report goes on: “This report has considered the likely traffic generation and distribution associated with the development and offset it against traffic generation associated with the former UWS buildings.
“The report has found that there will be no material traffic impact on the surrounding road network, and no need for changes to any existing junctions.”
The new application was received by SLC on March 25 and was validated on April 8.
Neighbourhood consultation began on April 13 and will end on May 4 with standard consultation beginning on April 12 and expiring on April 26.
The deadline for determining the application is August 7.