Part of the Bristol Zoo site has been sold by the charity to a developer, Bristol Live can confirm.
The Bristol Zoological Society has sold its West Car Park site to developers The Hill Group, who say they will build 62 ‘luxury homes’ on the site.
The West Car Park was the subject of a separate planning application to develop the land owned by the zoo in Clifton, and has been the subject of a couple of legal challenges from a local residents’ group over the decision to build on it.
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But that latest legal challenge has been unsuccessful, and the boss of The Hill Group confirmed they have completed the purchase of the land there, and will press on with building the homes.
Andy Hill, the firm’s chief executive, said a fifth of the new homes will be classified as ‘affordable’ under planning law. “This is an important site for the city of Bristol, both in terms of redeveloping a former part of the historic zoo and providing high-quality accommodation in such an architecturally rich part of the city,” he said. “We are pleased to have completed our acquisition of the site, and now look ahead to delivering a development that reflects the heritage of Clifton while also addressing the housing needs of the local area,” he added.
The Hill Group are one of several development companies with a series of key sites to build homes across Bristol. They are currently building the first stage of the massive Hengrove Park development - a development of 53 new homes at an area known as the ‘Bookends’ site at the entrance road into the hospital and leisure centre campus. The Hill Group have also nearly completed the big McArthur’s Yard development of 142 flats next to the SS Great Britain on Spike Island, and last week revealed that they have also purchased the now-closed-down Amerind Grove nursing home complex, near the Tobacco Factory in Ashton Gate, and revealed last week their plans for two new ‘Southville-style’ streets of terraced townhouses, as part of a development of more than 100 new homes.
For Bristol Zoo, getting the West Car Park sold is a key step towards funding its plans to expand The Wild Place in Easter Compton on the edge of Bristol, following the closure of the Bristol Zoo site to the public. The West Car Park has been something of a planning saga.
Council planners first gave permission for the West Car Park to be developed back in September 2021, but last year that decision was challenged in the courts by the Clifton and Hotwells Improvement Society, who persuaded a judge to quash the original planning permission in June 2022, forcing the council to rescind permission last June and the zoo to apply again for permission.
They did, with a few tweaks, and council planners again gave planning permission for a second time in November last year. Once again CHIS began legal action again in January this year, but the group was not given leave to mount a second legal challenge, freeing the zoo to sell the site to a developer.
Justin Morris, the chief executive of the Bristol Zoological Society, said: “It is great to see the progress being made on the redevelopment of this historically important location, offering new, sustainable and affordable housing for Bristol.”
The next step for the zoo will be to find a developer to buy the main Clifton Zoological Gardens site, and agree to build the development that the zoo was awarded planning permission for, as well as the condition that the remaining gardens be managed and paid for by a special management committee set up to maintain them and keep them open to the public for free.
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