A major Watford development that will see more than 1,200 homes built could be set to get even bigger.

Developers for the Eight Gardens scheme, off St Albans Road near where The Range and TK Maxx formerly were, now want to add 75 more homes and eight more floors. 

Berkeley Homes has submitted a planning application to vary permission already granted three years ago, which involved building 1,214 residential units across 11 buildings - including towers of 28, 24, and 22 storeys.

An amendment last year added 53 more homes, but now the developer wants to add six new floors to the building known as N3 and two more to N4.

If approved, this would involve 75 new homes, with 42 classed as affordable. There would be a range of housing types but the proportion of three-bedroom homes in the development would increase overall.

Watford Observer: The Eight Gardens.The Eight Gardens. (Image: Marjut Liverpool/Stephen Danzig, both via Watford Observer Camera Club)

There would be 231 new balconies added, along with changes to the commercial units within the development, including removing them entirely from N3's ground floor.

In the planning documents, Berkeley Homes said that the proposals have been made in order to facilitate a second stair core in the buildings. It adds that because government fire safety regulations will likely soon require second staircases in buildings above 18 metres, adjusting the phase two plans is needed. 

Phase one is currently under construction but phase two has not yet begun. All phase two buildings would have two staircases under the plan.

Watford Observer: A CGI giving a bird's eye view of the development as originally proposed.A CGI giving a bird's eye view of the development as originally proposed. (Image: Berkeley Homes)

Adding the staircase apparently “has significant impacts in the floor layouts” and so the extra floors have been proposed “to ensure that phase two remains deliverable whilst providing the benefits of the original permission”.

The Eight Gardens development is also set to include commercial units, a pub/bar, takeaway, energy centre, a primary school and nursery, and an outdoor square.