Case Studies - Planning & Development
Woolley are currently involved in taking forward some ground-breaking projects in eco-design and construction. In conjunction with leading teams of architects and planners:
- A 300-unit eco-housing development
- A village Passivhous development of seventeen homes
- A 2500 sq m totally autonomous office building
- An exemplar eco-friendly country house
- A zero-carbon school
There was some land in southwest England, alongside a main road. It comprised a number of farm buildings that had burnt down ten years previously. The land and buildings were owned by a trust and were not rebuilt because of arguments between the trust, the tenant - who saw an opportunity to obtain substantial compensation - and the Council. Therefore planning had lapsed on the buildings and the former listed buildings were greatly deteriorating. The Council required their repair and restoration, which, in itself was not viable. Woolley was brought in to sort out the deadlock:
The planning situation was carefully analysed. From this, it was evident that any planning application would cost too much money and time for the trust and furthermore, the outcome was too uncertain, because of previous delays and lack of effective action.
After complex negotiations, the tenant was compensated to give up such rights as he had and the whole property was successfully sold.
In South Eastern England there was a 50 acre block of residential development land. This had been sold subject to an option to developers, brokered by an agency. The developers got detailed planning consent and came back to exercise their option. The agent was instructed to proceed for the owners but the solicitors were becoming increasingly worried that the agent was not doing the best job in negotiating the deal in the client’s best interests or in a timely fashion. The solicitors were unhappy with this and called in Woolley to do a similar job to that which we do for our investment clients, by overseeing the surveyor in question. Woolley’s fees were about £50,000, but they gained the client in the region of £2,000,000.