Coyte Farm

Location
St Austell, Cornwall
Client
Metric Property Investments
Mercian Developments
Value
£100m
Size
100 acres

A robust mixed use masterplan

The 100 acre Coyte Farm is located near to the Cornish town of St Austell. It has been identified by our clients Mercian Developments and Metric Properties as a location for a mixed use development comprising retail, residential and leisure. We have designed the eco-friendly Sainsbury’s store and also prepared the masterplan for the entire site. In addition, the masterplan includes a retail park, major highways works and other uses including an extension to the St Austell Golf Club, a care village, pub and hotel and a residential scheme.

The site is contentious from an archaeological and visual impact point of view. MacGregor Smith, the project’s landscape architects, has produced a complex landscape scheme and comprehensive visual impact assessment. Our plans have been subject to close scrutiny from a vociferous anti Coyte Farm lobby.


Retail

The primary goal of this project was to deliver a high quality masterplan scheme, sensitive to its position and landscape setting and the wider context of the town of St Austell. The client’s objective was to provide a cohesive and comprehensive masterplan for the town’s expansion, which was submitted for planning permission in 2012. The design team had to establish a development framework to allow a phased development of the site, which was necessary because of its vast scale and diversity of use.

The development of the 23-acre site would require major upgrades to the road and landscape infrastructure in the area in order to construct the 250 new homes, pub, hotel, care home and 265,000ft2 retail park, which included a prominent food-store. Understanding the local economic, social, political and environmental issues for the St Austell area was essential in developing a design that would obtain maximum commercial opportunity whilst not compromising the chances of a successful application.