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16/00016/C
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PLANNING OFFICER REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Application No. : 16/00016/C Applicant : Dandara Commercial Limited Proposal : Temporary use of vacant site as office car park Site Address : Fields 521888 And 521895 Between Isle of Man Business Park and Cooil Road Douglas Isle of Man
Case Officer : Mr Edmond Riley Photo Taken : 28.01.2016 Site Visit : 28.01.2016 Expected Decision Level : Officer Delegation
Officer’s Report
1.0 THE APPLICATION SITE
1.1 The application site is an irregularly shaped parcel of land located on the northeastern side of Cooil Road and within the Cooil Business Park. Although there are extant approvals for office blocks, the land is, at present, open and covered with hardstanding.
2.0 THE PROPOSAL
2.1 Full but temporary planning approval is sought for the change of use of the site to a car park comprising 121 spaces. The application is needed because nearby business, Royal London 360, has recently completed the purchase of another business and is intending to incorporate the new staff within their existing building and site, and need additional parking facilities to this end.
2.2 The agent was asked to clarify a couple of points on the application, and his answer is helpful:
"Should the occupier be required by the owner to vacate the site early, for example because a client has been found for one of the approved office buildings on the site, then the owner must inform the occupier of this at least six months before the site has to be vacated. Hence the "six month notice period", which is a contractual issue and is not related to the 3 year period that the potential occupier wishes to use the site for. Obviously the daily requirement for 96 spaces is unlikely to be as precise as it sounds in Mr Wadsworth's letter, but notwithstanding this the site layout as submitted demonstrates that the site is capable of accommodating at least that number; it is not intended for the car park to be made available to any other users, any additional spaces will be for use by RL360 staff.
"There is a pedestrian access point in the roadside hedge between the site and Cooil Road, which will allow users of the car park to walk directly to RL360 House along the existing roadside footway. We have thought about the site's landscaping, but with the aforementioned roadside hedge in place we feel that further softening will be of little additional benefit to users of Cooil Road given the relatively short term use being proposed."
3.0 PLANNING HISTORY
3.1 The land in the area has been the subject of a number of recent planning applications for proposals relating to new office development. The most recent of these (PAs 14/01437/B and
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14/01442/B) extended the life of earlier planning approvals (11/00169/B and 11/00170/B) for the erection of three such buildings on parts of the current application site.
4.0 THE DEVELOPMENT PLAN
4.1 The site lies within an area designated on the Braddan Local Plan of 1991 as "Master Plan to be prepared which will include areas of Industrial Use, Science Based Industries, High Density Residential Use, Landscaping and Secondary School of approximately 16 acres". This succeeded a planning application seeking Approval in Principle for the development of a business park of 40 acres, which was approved on appeal under PA 89/04166/B. This required inter alia that the business park comprise light industrial use, warehousing, development associated with new technology companies predominantly involved in scientific, commercial or industrial research and development or electronic systems, micro-engineering, biotechnology, office accommodation as the corporate headquarters of companies which utilise the new information technologies and service other park users but specifically excluding financial and professional services to visiting members of the public, including banks, building societies, estate agencies and betting offices. The approval also required that buildings should cover no more than 25% of the business park.
4.2 The Business Park has existing occupants including Royal London 360 mutual life insurance (which sits on the corner of the business park and Cooil Road), Manx Telecom (who have a corporate headquarters and operating centre), and the MEA (who have similar accommodation). There are also training facilities, vehicle repair and servicing, and parcel distribution facilities within the park.
4.3 Business Parks are defined in the Strategic Plan as "development encompassing land for light industrial purposes, warehousing, new-technology companies involved in scientific, commercial, or industrial research or development and office accommodation as the corporate headquarters of companies having multiple and diverse interests (but excluding financial/professional services to visiting members of the public); buildings should be set in parkland which should dominate the landscape."
It is considered that the proposal would be in accordance with this land use zoning.
4.4 The Strategic Plan contains two policies that are of material relevance to the assessment of the planning application.
4.5 General Policy 2 states, in part: "Development which is in accordance with the land-use zoning and proposals in the appropriate Area Plan and with other policies of this Strategic Plan will normally be permitted, provided that the development:
(b) respects the site and surroundings in terms of the siting, layout, scale, form, design and landscaping of buildings and the spaces around them; (c) does not affect adversely the character of the surrounding landscape or townscape; (f) incorporates where possible existing topography and landscape features, particularly trees and sod banks; (g) does not affect adversely the amenity of local residents or the character of the locality; (h) provides satisfactory amenity standards in itself, including where appropriate safe and convenient access for all highway users, together with adequate parking, servicing and manoeuvring space; (i) does not have an unacceptable effect on road safety or traffic flows on the local highways; (k) does not prejudice the use or development of adjoining land in accordance with the appropriate Area Plan."
4.6 Transport Policy 7 states: "The Department will require that in all new development, parking provision must be in accordance with the Department's current standards."
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Appendix 7 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2007 sets a parking standard for out of town offices of 1 space for every 15 square metres of nett floor space.
4.7 The three paragraphs of supporting text for TP7 are also worth bearing in mind:
"The level of car parking provided in new development is critical to creating more sustainable development. Too little and the traffic generated can create problems on adjacent streets. Too much can increase congestion and delay public transport. The problem is most severe in existing settlements and at its worst in the Douglas area.
"In respect of town centre office development, it has been the Department's usual practice to require the provision of one parking space per 50sq metres of nett office floor space, such parking spaces to be provided preferably on site but otherwise conveniently close to the site. The standard of 1 space per 50sq metres is based on: 1/3 staff walking or cycling: 1/3 travelling by public transport and 1/3 by private car. This provision is very often rather less than the demand created by the development. In the case of office developments outside of the town centre, the requirement is usually one parking space per 15sq metres of nett office floor space, a ratio which reflects more accurately the actual demand for parking space arising from the office use. The Douglas Local Plan did in fact invite consideration of other options whereby either the requirement should be increased such as to meet fully the demand for parking space, or the requirement should be reduced so that, with proper enforcement of on-street parking restrictions, fewer workers would come into town by car.
"The long term target is to reduce the level of car parking required for town centre developments and seek to develop more sustainable staff and visitor transport plans including improved public transport, staff buses, shared and pooled cars, cycling and walking. Consideration should be given to the provision of cycle parking for staff and customers in non-residential development and to the provision of secure cycle stores in apartments. In the shorter term, the Department proposes the following general policy in respect of parking provision."
4.8 Although there is reference in Appendix 6 of the Strategic Plan to the need for such proposals to be submitted with an Environmental Impact Assessment, this also sets out that EIAs are required for urban developments only. It is not considered that the kind of car park here proposed - not least since it is on a temporary basis - would have been expected to be accompanied by an EIA.
5.0 REPRESENTATIONS
5.1 Highway Services of the Department of Infrastructure, and Braddan Commissioners, offered no objection to the proposal on 18/01/16 and 28/01/2016 respectively.
6.0 ASSESSMENT
6.1 The Strategic Plan requires a balance to be struck with respect to the amount of car parking provided. In striking that balance, an assessment needs to be made with respect to the need for the parking proposed relative to the need to support sustainable transport, the effect it would have on highway safety, and also the visual impact resulting.
6.2 The intention of the applicants' client to accommodate roughly 100 staff within their existing premises will require additional parking to be provided. Having regard to the parking requirements of the Strategic Plan is not terribly helpful in this instance since the standards relate to the amount of square floorspace a new building offers, rather than sets a 'per-employee' standard. The proposal would result in slightly over one space per new employee for the temporary period in which it is in operation. This would not be an inappropriate ratio (roughly 1 space per employee) although it is perhaps unfortunate that the apparent expectation is for all new staff to drive to work. However, the amount of parking provided will more than satisfy the need for the development and
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is considered acceptable as a result. It is noted that Highway Services have no objection to the proposal.
6.3 The access to the car park will be within the existing site, rather than as a new entrance onto Cooil Road. The fact that the existing highway accesses will become more intensively used will have been addressed under the original approval for the site and it is unlikely that the proposal will stretch the existing capacity of the junctions. Again, the lack of objection from Highway Services is instructive, and it is considered that an objection to the proposal in respect of TP7 or the relevant parts of GP2 would be inappropriate.
6.4 Turning to the visual impact, landscaping was, as noted, considered by the agent, and also by the case officer as potentially being worthwhile. The site is open, unused, and covered with a mixture of different kinds of hard landscaping. It does not give an attractive impression even if there is a Manx bank that to some extent screens this - the bank provides more screening than might be expected since the vast majority of people seeing the site do so from a moving vehicle and therefore their sightlines are lower than a pedestrian. However, it is noted that the proposal seeks temporary approval only. It is considered that should any additional time be added to the proposed use at some point in the future a landscaping scheme would very likely be needed; were the use to become permanent, a landscaping scheme would very likely be essential.
6.5 In terms of the visual impact the use would bring, a condition requiring details of how the parking spaces are to be laid out, along with a hard landscaping scheme, would be appropriate. This would ensure that the site is kept as neat and tidy as possible during this temporary use period.
7.0 RECOMMENDATION
7.1 It is concluded that the proposal is not at such significant variance from the adopted Development Plan policies as to warrant its refusal. A condition restricting the use to 3 years would still be appropriate for the avoidance of doubt. However, in view of the disagreeable appearance the site is currently in a condition requiring it to be reverted to that appearance once the use ceases would be unnecessary (moreover, the proposal makes no reference to physical alterations to the land in any case).
8.0 INTERESTED PERSON STATUS
8.1 By virtue of the Town and Country Planning (Development Procedure) (No 2) Order 2013, the following persons are automatically interested persons:
o The applicant, or if there is one, the applicant's agent; o The owner and the occupier of any land that is the subject of the application or any other person in whose interest the land becomes vested; o Any Government Department that has made written submissions relating to planning considerations with respect to the application that the Department considers material, which in this case includes the Highways Division of the Department of Infrastructure, and o The local authority in whose district the land the subject of the application is situated.
Recommendation
Recommended Decision:
Permitted Date of Recommendation: 09.02.2016
Conditions and Notes for Approval:
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C : Conditions for approval N : Notes attached to conditions
C 1. The development hereby approved shall be begun before the expiration of four years from the date of this decision notice.
Reason: To comply with article 14 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Procedure) (No2) Order 2013 and to avoid the accumulation of unimplemented planning approvals.
C 2. The use as a temporary car park of the land edged red on both Drawings 100 and 101 (both date- stamped as having been received 8th January 2016) shall be for a limited period of 3 years from the date of this approval notice.
Reason: The development has only been found to be acceptable on a short term basis because it meets a specific need.
C 3. Prior to the temporary use hereby approved coming into use, details of the boundary treatment (ideally a post and rail fence), details of a concrete apron at the site access, and details of how the parking spaces are to be laid out shall be provided to and approved in writing by the Department. These elements shall be retained in accordance with the approved details.
Reason: In the interest of protecting the appearance of the site.
The development hereby approved relates to Drawings 100 and 101, both date-stamped as having been received 8th January 2016.
I can confirm that this decision has been made by a Senior Planning Officer in accordance with the authority afforded to that Officer by the appropriate DEFA Delegation.
Decision Made : Permitted
Date: 25.02.2016
Determining officer
Signed : C BALMER
Chris Balmer
Senior Planning Officer
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