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Ref 10308/TS – Sept 09
The application site is a redundant commercial premises formerly used as Crennell's taxi hire garage in the heart of Ramsey. The site fronts both Tower and Parsonage Road and is adjacent to Manx Electric Railway terminal. The site measures some 711 m 2 . See appendix 1 for location plan.
The proposed redevelopment is to provide at total 17 apartments ( $11 \times 2$ bedroom and $6 \times 1$ bedroom) together with 17 off-street car parking spaces and cycle storage. 4 of the apartments ( $3 \times 2$ bedroom and $1 \times 1$ bedroom) will be under Section 13 legal agreement available as approved affordable homes under the Housing Purchase Assistance Scheme equating to $25 \%$ of the development in terms of bedroom accommodation, with the remaining apartments being aimed at first time buyers.
To our knowledge there have been no previous recent planning applications relating to the site.
The existing site occupies a reasonably prominent position and therefore warrants a well thought through building sympathetic to the surroundings. The design of the proposed building has taken into consideration a number of factors, firstly and most importantly the height of existing buildings along Tower and Parsonage Rd. It is clear that from existing properties and the relatively recent development to the south of the application site, Towerside Court, that properties in excess of three stories are acceptable as long as they respect and address the two storey plus dormer properties along Tower Rd. see appendix 2. The proposal for this site has been designed in such a manner as to be sympathetic to Tower Road cottages in terms of mass and styling. There is an established building line along Tower Road with properties set back from the rear edge of footpath, therefore the redevelopment gives the opportunity of demolishing the current building built tight up against the footpath and reintroducing the existing building line, thus extending the terrace of existing cottages. The massing of proposed development has been arrived at through providing privacy distances from adjacent habitable room windows of 20 m habitable room to habitable room and 12 m between habitable room and flank wall which in itself has produced an interesting building reducing the volume of the overall development. A raised communal plaza amenity space area has been provided connecting vertical circulation cores, which will encourage interaction between residents and will provide an improved outlook for residents of Towerside Court. Materials have been selected to harmonise with existing such as painted plain rendered walls, slate roof and traditionally proportioned windows.
The site is currently made up of a number of commercial premises with the property fronting Tower Road last used as a taxi depot / office and property fronting Parsonage Road last used as a vehicle maintenance workshop.
The site is within the Ramsey town centre in a predominately residential area.
The application site is located in the town centre and is well served by public transport.
Given the town centre location generally all surrounding roads have a 30 mph restriction.
There are two identifiable main roads in close proximity of the site, namely Queens Pier Road and Albert Street running into Waterloo Road which could be subject to increased traffic flow during peak periods, ie people travelling too and from places of work, however given that the application site's most recent use was a taxi hire garage / depot and that the application site is a town centre brown field site we would not expect the proposed development to add to the traffic volume during these times, and would envisage that purchasers would have made a lifestyle choice to live in the town centre, giving them access to all the usual town centre facilities and work places without the reliance on motorised transport, promoting a more sustainable approach such as walking or cycling.
The site is within acceptable walking distance to numerous frequent bus routes serving the north of the Island with the Ramsey bus depot being within 250 m providing bus links to the Island as a whole together with express services for people working outside of Ramsey. The MER depot is adjacent to the site with seasonal services between Ramsey and Douglas. See appendix 1 for location of bus stops and parking
Principle pedestrian access into the proposed development will be from Tower Road via a stepped approach up to raised communal plaza level. A lift will be provided linking the car parking area to plaza and floors above. A secondary pedestrian entrance will be provided from the parking area from Parsonage Road.
As previously noted the application site lies within the town centre, with local amenities along Albert and Parliament Street within some 150 m , and the commercial centre of the town within a similar distance, with walking to places of employment and local amenities being promoted.
It is proposed that a number of cycle racks are provided within the secure ground floor parking area accessed from both Tower and Parsonage Road. The parking area is enclosed and will have a roller shutter access door operated by key fob to ensure secure environment for cycle storage, anchor points will also be provided to enable cycles to be fastened to give a secondary means of security.
10WER ROAD
We are proposing 17 on-site car parking spaces which represents $100 \%$ parking, 2 spaces would be suitable for disabled persons use. The Isle of Man Strategic Plan states that for apartment developments 2 spaces would be required for each dwelling, which would represent 34 spaces for the proposed development, however A.7.1 within Strategic document will allow relaxation of this to reduce the requirement depending on location of site in relation with local amenities, transport links, employment and town centre. Given the town centre location and close proximity of local amenities, employment etc we feel that the sustainable nature of such a brown field redevelopment outweighs the standard car parking requirements, thus providing 1 car parking space per dwelling.
Access to the on-site parking will be from Tower Road in many respects the same as current site arrangements. The opening into the garage will be of sufficient width to allow cars to easily manoeuvre in / out of the garage area and provide sufficient forward visibility to protect passing pedestrians. There will be adequate space within the parking enclosure to allow vehicles to turn to ensure they are forward facing when exiting on to Tower Road.
There is an abundance of on-street parking surrounding the application site, some of which have time restrictions generally between the hours of 8am - 6pm Monday to Friday for no stopping longer than 2 hours in any 2 hours, these are ideal to serve as parking for persons visiting the proposed development dwellings. Visitors wishing to stay longer have the choice of a number of public car parks within close proximity, such as Albert Street and Market Place. Outside of these hours, ie during the evening where it would be expected that visitors would possibly stay longer than two hours, the time restriction does not apply. Appendix 3 indicates that there is generally a surplus of parking spaces around the development site outside the restricted time limits for on street parking therefore the proposal would not place an excessive demand on existing on street parking availability.
Given the town centre location we would envisage that the total number of vehicle movements too and from the site would be considerably reduced from the current commercial use of the site. As previously stated sustainable modes of transport would be promoted, however looking at worse case would envisage circa 17 car movements in morning and similar in the evening.
During the construction of the proposed development, it is intended that there will be no requirement for any full or part road closures. The initial site set up would be within existing building fronting Parsonage Road prior to its demolition following creating of parking area off Tower Road where the site welfare facilities would be relocated to together with material storage. Scaffolding will be required around building works at certain stages throughout the on-site works and this will be erected to maintain existing footpath access, with necessary protection measures in place.
The proposal indicates $3 \times 1100$ litre communal bins located to the front of the development along Tower Road in close proximity to the residents entrance to allow ease of use for both residents and collection services. The bins will be located within a dedicated bin store area suitably ventilated and with wash down facilities. Bins could easily be manoeuvred from enclosure to collection vehicle which would stop along Tower Road.
We would envisage that general day to day deliveries would be from Tower Road entrance where there are a number of parking spaces available with no waiting restrictions and more limited to 2 hours.
The redevelopment gives the opportunity of introducing landscaping around the site. Reintroducing the building line along Tower Road will enable an element of shrub and small ornamental tree planting to be introduced. The raised plaza area will provide a mixture of hard and soft landscaping to improve the outlook from adjacent Towerside Court and provide and attractive residents amenity space. A narrow planted strip will be introduced along the northern boundary addressing the MER terminal where the proposed building is set in from site boundary.
Shared residential amenity space in the form of plaza area will be provided, with overall on site amenity equating to 251 m 2 . Under appendix 6 of Strategic Plan for this development comprising of $6 \times 1$ bedroom and $11 \times 2$ bedroom flats there would be an on site requirement of 248 m 2 for residential amenity space and a further 744 m 2 of open space, therefore the application satisfies the on-site obligations. It is considered that given the sites close proximity to Coronation Playground public open space, that residents would prefer to use such facility therefore the applicant would be willing to enter into negotiations to pay a percentage commuted sum for the open space obligations, subject to legal agreement under Section 13 of the 1999 Act to support the ongoing future of local open space facilities.
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