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They were last year told by bosses they had to find an affordable housing provider to take on two of the six homes (below) at Woolmans Garden Centre off Grange Road.
But the Woolman family says they have been unable to find a provider “due to management and service charge concerns”.
It has instead offered Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council £100,000 to approve a scheme with no affordable housing. See the application here.
The affordable houses would have had two and three bedrooms.
The site has not been used since 2005 and was home to five glass houses which have now been demolished.
The planning application says: “We have shown that there is considerable environmental benefit in the removal of a derelict building of substantial scale and replacement with a much smaller development of high quality rural style buildings.”
It would have a “much more limited impact” than a fully operational garden centre, it said.
The development is for Green Belt land and the applicant has to argue there is “very special circumstances” for it to be approved.
Two people left comments on the council’s website opposing the previous plan.
Tony Smith said he was concerned he had not been told the development would have affordable housing.
David Murphy said he was “concerned with the precedent that agricultural land on green belt land will be replaced with houses”.
And he said the centre were “agricultural buildings” and therefore not a busy as a garden centre.
He said: “The land could be cultivated or made available for sporting activities or allotments. The proposed houses offer no advantage to the local community.”
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