Cardiff Council has approved detailed plans for 177 new homes at Plasdŵr, the next phase of a huge housing estate being built in north west Cardiff. The latest homes will go up on land off Pentrebane Drive and north of St Fagans Road, where the developer wants to create a new neighbourhood called Pendown.

The scheme sits within Plasdŵr, a £2 billion development that is expected to deliver around 7,000 homes over the next two decades across 900 acres of former greenfield land between St Fagans, Radyr, Morganstown and Fairwater. BDW Trading Ltd, a subsidiary of Barratt Redrow, is behind the latest phase, which planning documents say is named after the historic Pendown estate farm that once stood nearby.

The approved mix includes terraced homes, semi-detached homes, detached homes and walk-up flats, with most properties planned as two-storey or two-and-a-half-storey buildings. The design also calls for extensive tree planting, low traffic speeds and, where possible, shared surfaces, while each home will have parking and cycle storage. For a site that is now mainly grassland, hedgerows and a small area of woodland, the plans mark another step in turning open land into a dense new suburb.

Plasdŵr has long been promoted as Cardiff’s garden city for the 21st Century, and the latest approval keeps that idea at the centre of the masterplan. Around 40% of the wider site is earmarked for green space, including parks, woodlands and playing fields, while the full scheme also includes five separate neighbourhoods, four new primary schools, a secondary school and a district centre with shops, cafes, bars and healthcare services.

The tension in the project is the same one that has followed it from the start: how to build at scale without losing the open, green character that made the land attractive in the first place. The wider plan also includes improved public transport links, new cycle routes and upgraded bus infrastructure, and up to 30% of homes across the overall development are expected to be affordable housing. For now, the council’s approval means Pendown can move from drawings to ground work, and the next piece of Plasdŵr is ready to begin.