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Application No.: 17/00906/B Applicant: Irena Willems Proposal: Alterations to facilitate a change of use from existing office use to three apartments for use as permanent residential and selfcatering tourist accommodation Site Address: The Warehouse 1A Queen Street Castletown Isle Of Man IM9 1PB Case Officer : Mr Edmond Riley Photo Taken: 07.09.2017 Site Visit: 07.09.2017 Expected Decision Level: Officer Delegation Recommended Decision: Permitted Date of Recommendation: 28.09.2017 _________________________________________________________________
C : Conditions for approval N : Notes attached to conditions
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.
The development hereby approved relates to Drawings KV/5/1, KV5/2, KV5/3 and KV/5/4, all date-stamped as having been received 24th August 2017.
none _____________________________________________________________________________
1.0 THE APPLICATION SITE - 1.1 The application site is the curtilage of The Warehouse, a three-storey office building located on the southern side of Queens Street, Castletown, and also includes four parking spaces within the nearby public car park that are in the control of the applicant. The Warehouse is attached to St Mary's Church via a singles storey link on the northern elevation. St Mary's Church is a Registered Building, No. 78 on the Registered Building list. - 1.2 The application building is not overly visible in the street given its siting behind existing buildings. The western elevation is clearly visible from the car park alongside The Old Grammar School. The building backs on to the beach.
2.0 RELEVANT PLANNING HISTORY - 2.1 Full planning approval was granted for the conversion of the building into three onebedroom residential apartments under PA 15/00606/B. That application, which remains unimplemented but extant, included the intention to replace the existing bay window features on the sea-facing elevation with balconies running across the gable wall. Five dedicated parking spaces were available for the building in the adjacent long-stay car park. In a thorough assessment, the case officer noted that the application complied with five specific assessment areas, namely:
2.2 The approval notice carried no conditions beyond that of the standard time limit for commencement.
3.1 The current application seeks approval to change the use of the building to three selfcontained apartments. This would, like the extant 2015 scheme, result in the creation of one apartment per floor in the building, but on this occasion no physical changes are proposed to the building's exterior. - 4.0 THE DEVELOPMENT PLAN
4.1 The site falls within an area zoned as Mixed Use on the Area Plan for the South 2013. With none of the policies of that Plan considered material to the assessment of this application, it falls to be assessed against General Policy 2, Transport Policies 4 and 7, and Environment Policy 35 of the Strategic Plan. - 5.0 REPRESENTATIONS
5.1 Highway Services of the DoI offered no objection to the application on 25th September 2017, subject to the imposition of the following condition:
"One parking spaces shall be allocated to the resident of each apartment and retained for their sole use thereafter.
"Reason: to ensure that the Strategic Plan parking standards are met and that the apartment cannot be let without the allocation of a parking space."
5.2 Castletown Commissioners offered no objection to the application in comments received 7th September 2017. - 6.0 ASSESSMENT
6.1 While every application should be treated on its own merits, the extant approval for the conversion of the building into three residential dwellings is a clear material consideration. The differences on this occasion are that the building benefits from one fewer parking space and there are no physical alterations proposed. Only if these changes would result in significant and harmful differences to the impact of the proposed development is it considered the application could be reasonable recommended for anything other than approval.
6.2 In respect of the first issue, the amount of parking required of this building is only in the region of three spaces such that the four available actually represents an over-provision, and a welcome one at that given that town centre locations such as this rarely benefit from such dedicated parking. The lack of objection recorded, and requested condition, by Highway Services seem reasonable.
6.3 The case officer for the previous scheme was of the view that the proposed balconies would significantly improve the appearance of the building. This view is accepted today, and therefore it is lamented that this no longer forms an element of the proposed conversion. Those balconies would certainly have improved residents' private amenity, and presumably would also increase the attractiveness and thus value of the units. However, there can be no objection to the application on this ground since the current application does not propose any physical change whatsoever, and the lack of an improvement in the building's appearance cannot militate against the proposal. That there would be a large number of windows in each elevation to provide appropriate sunlight, daylight and outlook further confirms this view. - 7.0 CONCLUSION
7.1 The application is acceptable as assessed against the relevant policies, albeit the development proposed is not judged to be as appropriate or welcome a scheme as the extant approval.
7.2 A condition requiring the parking to be made available to the apartments is necessary. INTERESTED PERSON STATUS - 8.1 By virtue of the Town and Country Planning (Development Procedure) (No 2) Order 2013 (Article 6(4), the following persons are automatically interested persons:
8.2 The decision-maker must determine:
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: 03.10.2017 Determining officer
Signed : S CORLETT Sarah Corlett Senior Planning Officer
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