**Document:** Officer Planning Report Recommendation **Application:** 10/00334/C — Change of use to allow retail/offices **Decision:** Permitted **Decision Date:** 2010-05-06 **Parish:** Malew **Document Type:** report / officer_report **Source:** https://planningportal.im/a/36066-malew-ground-first-change-of-use/documents/1349986 --- # Officer Planning Report Recommendation ## Planning Report And Recommendations [Table omitted in markdown export] ### Considerations [Table omitted in markdown export] ### Written Representations [Table omitted in markdown export] ### Consultations [Table omitted in markdown export] [Table omitted in markdown export] ### Officer's Report THIS APPLICATION IS REFERRED TO THE PLANNING COMMITTEE FOR CONSIDERATION AS THE SITE HAS A HISTORY OF PLANNING APPLICATIONS WHICH HAVE GENERALLY BEEN CONSIDERED BY THE COMMITTEE RATHER THAN UNDER DELEGATED POWERS ### The Site The site defined in red represents a unit situated at the rear of 17 and 19, Malew Street, within the Callow's Yard shopping development between 9 and 21, Malew Street and 6 - 26, Arbory Street. The units concerned are brand new buildings which have planning permission for use as a bar and coffee shop on the ground floor with the same uses extended into the floors above. The units are physically attached to the complex to the rear with pedestrian access from the first and ground floors into the retail area to the rear, abutting the Malew Street shops and circulation space adjoining the living accommodation above some of the shops. ### Planning Status The site lies within an area designated on both the Castletown Local Plan of 1991 and the draft Southern Area Plan which was published on 23rd October, 2009 as Mixed Use reflecting the variety of uses - residential, offices, cafes, bars and retail which exist within the town centre. The extant local plan contains advice regarding commercial use of premises in Mixed Use areas as follows: ## "Commercial/Retail - 2.3. One area does however have potential for development as retail use:- i) an area between Arbory Street and Malew Street. - 2.4. The section between Arbory Street and Malew Street is seen as having potential for the creation of a mall between the two streets - 2.5. The structures behind the buildings fronting the two streets are largely redundant and of little intrinsic value and could therefore be demolished in order to permit such a development to take place. - 2.6. Such a development would not only provide additional retail capacity in the central area but would also effectively link Arbory Street and Malew Street, encourage circulation between the two and alleviate the possible reluctance of the customer to visit the furthermost shops in the knowledge that it was necessary to return by the same route. Approval in principle has now been granted for a scheme which incorporates retail uses at ground level and hotel accommodation on upper levels. - 2.10 THE AREA BETWEEN ARBORY STREET AND MALEW STREET SHOULD BE DEVELOPED FOR RETAIL PURPOSES AT GROUND LEVEL WITH THE OPTION OF HOTEL/TOURISM DEVELOPMENT ON UPPER LEVELS AND A PEDESTRIAN LINK BETWEEN THE TWO STREETS SHOULD BE ESTABLISHED. IN CREATING THIS LINK, EXISTING STRUCTURES MUST BE RETAINED WHERE PRACTICABLE THE USE OF MATERIALS AND FINISHES WILL BE CLOSELY CONTROLLED AND THE MASSING OF THE DEVELOPMENT MUST BE IN SYMPATHY WITH THE NEIGHBOURING BUILDINGS. IN ANY NEW DEVELOPMENT, THE USE OF THE UPPER LEVELS FOR RESIDENTIAL, RETAIL OR TOURISM WILL BE ENCOURAGED. - 2.11 IT IS CONSIDERED THAT SUCH A DEVELOPMENT CAN ONLY BE REALISED IF IT IS ACTIVELY PROMOTED. TO THIS END IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT THE CASTLETOWN COMMISSIONERS SHOULD PURSUE THIS POLICY AS A MATTER OF PRIORITY. 2.12 USE OF THE UPPER FLOORS OF EXISTING RETAIL PREMISES FOR RESIDENTIAL OR OFFICE USE WILL BE ENCOURAGED. THEIR CONVERSION FROM RESIDENTIAL USE TO OFFICE USE WILL HOWEVER BE DISCOURAGED" ### "Offices 3.5 IT IS RECOGNISED THAT THE AVAILABILITY OF SUFFICIENT AREAS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ANY SIGNIFICANT NEW OFFICE DEVELOPMENT WITHIN THE TOWN CENTRE IS LIMITED. 3.7 THE CONVERSION OF UPPER LEVELS TO OFFICE USE IN THE COMMERCIAL AREA OF ARBORY STREET, MALEW STREET AND BANK STREET WILL BE PERMITTED AS WILL THEIR USE AS RESIDENTIAL (SEE ALSO 2.12) 3.8 THE PRINCIPLE OF MIXED USE WITH RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL WILL BE ENCOURAGED IN THE SECTOR COMPRISING ARBORY STREET AND MALEW STREET AS NEW DEVELOPMENT." Other relevant policies include 5.4 which states that the introduction of housing into the town itself will be encouraged but will require to be to a suitably high standard of design in line with the Conservation Area policy. The car parking section suggests that there is limited parking available and that "discretion in the provision and location of parking may therefore need to be exercised" (7.6) and that bearing in mind the Conservation Area status, the policy need not universally be applied. There is specific reference to this site in paragraph 7.19 where it states that "any future development of the area between Arbory Street and Malew Street will be required to incorporate the maximum car parking provision which is feasible in this area but must not prejudice the bowling green, tennis courts and play area". The section on Conservation Area does not mention this site specifically but refers to the need for a high standard of design, the importance of controlling demolition and replacement buildings. The draft Area Plan includes the following within the draft Written Statement: "5.6.3 It is considered that future office development within the South may be accommodated primarily by the use of existing buildings. Within the central Mixed Use area this will normally take the form of the upper floors of buildings which are not currently in residential use. However, it should be recognised that an office use can be located on the ground floor of a building where it would present an interesting frontage and would not detract from the overall character and setting of the area." "Business Policy 1: The upper floors of buildings in the mixed use areas of Castletown, Port Erin, Port St Mary and Ballasalla are appropriate for office use as long as this does not result in the loss of residential dwellings. The ground floors of buildings will normally be deemed inappropriate for office development except where it can be shown that such a development would add to the interest of the frontage and the overall vitality and viability of the area." ## Planning History Planning permission was originally granted for the creation of a residential and retail development which would link Malew and Arbory Streets under PA 05/1539. This was permitted on appeal, the principle issue being that of the provision of car parking in association with the development. The inspector concluded that "In short, the development will give rise to a demand for parking, and no provision is made, either on or off the site. The development is incomplete, and should only be allowed if there are exceptional benefits which would outweigh the continual harm arising from an absence of parking provision" and recommended that the Minister refuse the application. The Minister, however, did not accept that advice and approved the application on appeal, stating "the determination of this appeal is a matter of judging whether the conservation and regeneration benefits of the proposal outweigh the adverse effects arising from the absence of parking provision...in these circumstances, the Minister has concluded that - the disadvantages arising from the absence of parking provision are not so great as to outweigh the undoubted advantages of the proposal and that the expeditious progress of this scheme should not be jeopardised by the obvious difficulty of securing a satisfactory arrangement for off-site parking provision" and he urged the Department of Transport and Castletown Commissioners to continue investigating ways of improving the parking provision for the town. Since then, planning permission has been granted for a number of additional units to be associated with the original development and for modifications to the originally approved scheme, including in the case of the application units which proposed the change of use of the units from living accommodation (mews house 4) on one side and seating associated with the ground floor coffee bar on the other, to one open area on each floor to be used as an eating and drinking facility (PA 09/0613). ### The Proposal Proposed is the change of use from the eating and drinking facility on all floors, to either retail on all floors or offices on all floors with the flexibility to change between the two without the need for a further planning application. There is pedestrian access to the second floor only from the first floor and there is access between the ground and first floors within the unit and separate access from the ground and first floors to other parts of the same floor. ### Representations Department of Transport Highways and Traffic Division (now Department of Infrastructure) indicate that they do not oppose the application. The owner of 24, Brewery Wharf objects to the application on the basis that there is no parking provided for the users of the premises and that parking is already limited in the vicinity of his property and the proposed change of use would exacerbate this situation. ## Assessment The proposed change of use of the three floors from café/bar to retail will have little impact in terms of the numbers of people visiting the site, how long they would stay or the number of staff employed. Indeed, there is no separate standard for car parking in town centre locations for retail as opposed to catering premises. The Strategic Plan (Appendix 4 paragraph 7.4) states that retail premises must have sufficient areas of accessible public car parking either on or off street and adequate controls in place for these spaces to be available to those who need them. In this case, there are car parking spaces in the town centre in a variety of on and off-street locations although many of the spaces are generally occupied by those working in and visiting the town. On a typical visit to the town there are usually three or four spaces available in around Bridge Street, across the harbour from the shopping centre, two of three spaces in the Old School House car park, very few spaces available in the Farrant's Way car park next to the fire station (most of the spaces in this car park are reserved) but the vast majority of the 64 public spaces in the pay and display car park on Farrant's Way are almost always available and are within very convenient walking distance of the site. It is considered that the impact of the change of the use of the three floors from cafe/bar to retail would not result in such a change in usage or impact in terms of demand for parking spaces, such as to warrant a refusal of planning permission. There have previously been concerns expressed that the complex provides a surfeit of catering establishments and this could be seen as addressing this concern. The change in use of the units from cafe/bar to offices will bring about a change both in the use of the units and the demand for parking spaces. Office workers will tend to be in the units within the working day, requiring longer term spaces for most of the day. These spaces are available in the car park on Farrant's Way, albeit that the occupants would have to pay for their stay. The parking requirement for offices in a town centre location is one space per 50 sq. m nett of floor space. The parking policy set out in the Strategic Plan does, however include a provision where the location of the offices are within convenient walking distance of an existing or proposed bus route and it can be demonstrated that the reduced level of parking will not result in an unacceptable level of on-street parking in the locality. In this case, the site is within the town centre where there is both car parking and public transport available. Increased on-street car parking may be a result, but only either within authorised parking areas or alongside residential properties alongside the town centre area (eg Scarlett Road, Queen Street or Farrant's Park). Whilst the occupant of Brewery Wharf states that the proposal will exacerbate an existing parking problem, and it is fully accepted that the residents of this part of the town together with overspill from the town centre and parents of children visiting Victoria Road School cumulatively require significant amounts of on-street car parking spaces, there are sometimes a limited amount of spaces available in this area as well as a pay and display car park on the other side of the shopping area which has more than adequate capacity to accommodate the parking required from this change of use. The use of the space for offices will, however also create increased levels of patronage of existing town centre shops and services and in this case would be compatible with the emerging Southern Area Plan policies as the units are not on the main street frontage so would not detract from the visual appearance of the streetscene. Taking all of the above into account, it is considered that the use of the units as either all offices or all retail would compliment the adjacent uses - residential and retail - and would not result in an adverse impact on the town centre such as to warrant the application being refused. It is relevant that neither the highway authority nor the local authority have objected to the application. ### Party Status The local authority is, by virtue of the Town and Country Planning (Development Procedure) Order 2005, paragraph 6 (5) (d), considered an "interested person" and as such should be afforded party status. The Department of Transport Highways and Traffic Division is now part of the Department of Infrastructure of which the planning authority is part. As such, the Highways and Traffic Division cannot be afforded party status in this instance. The resident of Brewery Wharf is not directly affected by the proposal and as such should not be afforded party status in this instance. ## Recommendation Recommended Decision: Permitted Date of Recommendation: 19.04.2010 ### Conditions and Notes for Approval / Reasons and Notes for Refusal ### C : Conditions for approval
N : Notes attached to conditions
R : Reasons for refusal
O : Notes attached to refusals C 1. The use must be taken up within four years of the date of this notice in order for this approval to remain valid after that time. C 2. This permision relates to the the use of the ground, first and second floors as shown in drawings PA613/03B, PA613/04B _ PA 613/05B and PA613/03C, PA613/04C _ PA613/05C as either all offices or all retail. I confirm that this decision has been made by the Planning Authority in accordance with the authority afforded to it under the Town and Country (Development Procedure) 2005 Decision Made : Authority Meeting Date : Signed : Presenting Officer Further to the decision of the Authority an additional report/condition reason is required. Signing Officer to delete as appropriate YES/NO 19 April 2010 10/00334/C Page 6 of 6 --- *Data sourced from the Isle of Man public planning register under the [Isle of Man Open Government Licence](https://www.gov.im/about-this-site/open-government-licence/).* *Canonical page: https://planningportal.im/a/36066-malew-ground-first-change-of-use/documents/1349986*