Site owners and developers Project Blue said it will now work on a comprehensive review of its plans for the £1 billion Chelsea Barracks site and will be consulting new architects.
The site has been dogged with problems. First Qatari Diar, the real estate investment company owned by the Qatari royal family bought out Christian Candy's CPC Group's equity stake in the project.
Then Qatari Diar had to make major revisions to the plans after Westminster City Council and various residents associations expressed grave concerns about the impact of the development.
These included reducing the height of a 13 storey tower block and scaling back the number of apartments as well as increasing the amount of publically accessible park space.
Then the Prince of Wales wrote to Qatari Diar expressing concerns about the development. He described it as too dense and too modern for such an historic site.
Now the new plans have also been met with little enthusiasim from planning officials. When it became clear that Westminster planning officers were not prepared to recommend the plans which were due to be discussed by councillors at a meeting next week, Qatari decided to scrap them.
'After extensive and ongoing consultations with the stakeholders Qatari Diar has withdrawn its current planning application for the site,' said a statement from Project Blue.
'Our shareholder's vision for this site is to deliver for London a best in class, sustainable residential development that includes community facilities and brings real benefits to this part of London. We will continue our extensive consultation process with all our stakeholders, where our focus will be on building a consensus for one of the most important sites in London,' it continued.
It will even consult Prince Charles. 'We have been invited by Qatari Diar to participate in a more open process. We will work with them to advise on master planning from our core principle of involving the local community and local stakeholders,' said Hank Dittmar, chief executive officer of the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment.
Qatari Diar added that it hopes to have a new masterplan ready to be submitted to Westminster City Council for planning consent by the end of 2009.
