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SUPPORTING INFORMATION STATEMENT FOR PROPOSED TWO STOREY EXTENSION TO THE BUNGALOW, WOODLAND HEIGHTS, ONCHAN.
INTRODUCTION
This Design Statement accompanies the full planning application for the demolition of the existing attached garage and store rooms in order to construct a new two storey extension to the side of The Bungalow, Woodland Heights, Ashley Road, Onchan.
In this Design Statement the existing site, details of pre application consultations and the development proposals are discussed in full and should be read in conjunction with the following: -
EXISTING SITE
The application site comprises of the residential property known as The Bungalow, Woodland Heights and is located in the east of the Isle of Man on the outskirts of the parish of Onchan.
The application site covers approximately 3,330 square metres and is within the residential curtilage forming part of The Bungalow, Woodland Heights holding. The holding as a whole comprises a residential property and approximately 90,300 square metres (9.03 Hectares / 22.3 acres) of grazing land, spread over six fields which have recently been purchased by the current owners of the residential property. The extent of the grazing land is highlighted in blue and residential application site is highlighted in red on Carl Jenkins Design drawing numbered 2015/16/01 included with this application.
The nearest residential property to the application site is The Cottage, Woodland Heights and this is located to the South East of the application site at an approximate distance of 14.5 metres at the closest point.
The land slopes from west of the application site towards the access road located to the east of the application site. The application site is generally surrounded by a mixture of mature trees and established bracken with stock proof fence to the South & West boundaries.
Photographs of the application site are included on Carl Jenkins Design drawings numbered 2015/16/02 & 03.
Vehicle access to application site is from Ashley Road in Onchan via a private access lane, which serves the existing residential properties and gives access to several agricultural fields. This private access lane is jointly owned by the residential properties served and the responsibility of maintenance and repairs are shared between the homeowners. The shared private access lane terminates at the Woodland
Towers residence and the owners of The Bungalow have a legal right of way over the lane to access their property. The section of lane between The Bungalow and Woodland Towers is not under the ownership of The Bungalow and the owner carries out maintenance / repairs. The shared private lane leads to a dead end and is not commonly used by members of the public.
Photographs of the existing shared access lane and private access to The Bungalow are included in Appendix A at the rear of this document.
There are no public footpaths in the immediate vicinity of the application site.
The site has been subject to one planning application under the current owners, details of which are given below. However, the previous owner submitted a couple of planning applications, one for a new field access in 2012 and one for alterations / extension to The Bungalow in 2007. Details are included below for reference in relation to this application.
Application submitted by current owners Ref Status Details $15 / 01017 / B$ Permitted Erection of stable block in field 531216 Applications submitted by previous owners Ref Status Details $12 / 00165 / B$ Permitted Creation of new field access into field 531294 $07 / 00802 / B$ Permitted Alterations \& Extension
When we bought the house in May 2013 we were aware that we would want to make some changes to the house in order to make it our "forever" home. We knew the property had already had planning permission granted for a large extension in the past as we were shown copies of these plans when viewing the house. With this in mind we didn't anticipate any problems making the alterations required to make the house work well for our family now and into the future as our children grow. The large plot and other outdoor space was always going to be perfect for our family so we decided we would move in and just live in the bungalow as it is in order to get a feel what alterations would work best for both the house, that we wanted to significantly update, and also our family. After two years in the bungalow we now know what we would like to achieve with a combination of renovation and extension:
Charlie is currently sleeping in the smallest room in the house that is actually the hallway/access to the downstairs storage as opposed to a bedroom - her bed is on top of the staircase and has to be pushed out and climbed over when we need access. Sienna and Callum have better sized bedrooms but would like both to have some more space.
More bathrooms/Shower rooms 3 Children share 1 bathroom at present. Proper entrance hall/Front door Currently 2 entrance doors on the front of the house both poorly positioned. They are not practical and also don't look very nice. Lounge that isn't a through room Lounge is a lovely size for our family but also the biggest corridor in the house. Modern kitchen/dining/family living space
A more sociable living space so we can all be together and still be doing our own thing would enhance family living. This is what we have moved from.
*Gym
Treadmill is currently located in the conservatory, which isn't ideal. *More modern external appearance Currently the bungalow looks tired and old fashioned.
We originally enlisted the help of a different architect to the one we have now and we spent some time discussing different ways to achieve the above list of requirements. This really became a quick process of elimination. At this time the architect met with the local planning authority in order to gain an idea of what would and would not be acceptable on this particular plot.
Our understanding of this meeting was that the planning department would be open to discussing knocking down the bungalow and re building but this as something we quickly dismissed for a couple of reasons: Financial being a big one and our desire to have the children settled at home another important requirement.
Also at this meeting the planning officer pointed out that any extension would need to take into account the lay/fall of the land and so raising the roof across the entire bungalow to turn it into a house was also ruled out as far as planning was concerned, and for us also, as with the knock down, we don't want to have to move the children out of the home while works go on.
Due to the shape of the bungalow and the positioning of our neighbours and driveway it was obvious any extension should be at the far end of the house.
The current design plans for the bungalow came quite naturally by addressing problems one by one and the solutions/new design just fell into place. In order to gain more bedrooms and bathroom space we would need to re allocate the current lounge as this is in the centre of the house. This would make space for 2 new bedrooms and a corridor in order to access all the bedrooms. By moving the staircase out of the current small room and into the main hallway, we could also fit an additional bathroom to service one of these bedrooms.
This then made the best position to access this new main corridor, the room that is currently the kitchen - and this would then solve the front entrance/hallway issue and the first 4 points of our wish list.
This would then push the kitchen and the lounge further along the house. As per our wish list, we want to make these areas a real modern family living space and bring the bungalow up to date, so we felt looking at the current shaped of the house, if we extended into the garage and store rooms it would be ideally positioned and a good size for modern kitchen and utility spaces, all accessed from the new entrance hallway.
An extension off the back of the garage would make the new lounge and the dimensions we have taken directly from the current lounge in the house as this room has proved to be a wonderful size for all our family and the bungalows best asset. We'd like to keep this new lounge open plan to the kitchen and thus provide the living area that is so sought after now. We felt it necessary to have a small extension from the front of this new kitchen to incorporate a few extras such as cloaks and boiler room and also for the outside appearance of the house. This redevelopment and extension to the far end of the house would also allow us to make the most of the beautiful garden/fields and mountain views, and it was with this in mind that we decided a second storey on this end of the house as previously discussed would be beneficial to the house. It was for this reason that a master suite has been planned above the new lounge and also the longed for gym above the kitchen and front of the house.
The views from this second level would be fantastic and we feel the second storey does definitely enhance the overall look of the bungalow. We wanted to bring the bungalow up to date and make the house have an overall modern feel and we think this design does achieve that. By changing some of the existing windows and with the further addition of Manx stone clad to break up the render in external places on the house we feel the bungalow will still look at home in the area since there is lots of stone used by our neighbours and external garden walls, yet modern with the combination of the two products meeting together using a glass "connecting" hallway.
PRE APPLICATION ADVICE
Throughout the design process pre-application consultations have taken place with Mr Edmond Riley, Planning Officer. These consultations have been in the form of a site visit, telephone conversations, meetings at the planning department and email correspondence.
The advice given in the pre application consultations has been incorporated into the drawings and information that form the basis of this application.
PLANNING POLICY
The application site falls within the Local Area Plan for Onchan, dated 2000. Map 1 of the Onchan Local Plan 2000 indicates the application site is within an area designated as Open Space for particular purpose of private woodland or parkland.
The Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2007 contains several policies that are considered relevant to this application. These policies include Strategic Policy 1, General Policy 3, Environment Policies 3 & 42 and Housing Policy 16.
The proposal seeks to construct a two storey extension to replace the existing garage at The Bungalow, Woodland Heights, Onchan. As outlined above the current owners purchased the property a couple of years ago with a view to extending the property to suit their needs.
Following discussions with the planning department it was agreed that any extension to the property should make use of the existing contours of the site and therefore be constructed to the western side of the existing property. This would also mean the extension is kept away from the immediate neighbours and that the first floor extension would provide impressive views over Onchan and the surrounding area.
The scale of the extension creates a residential dwelling that compliments its location and the surrounding area. It is very similar to the size of the extension approved under planning approval 07/00802/B although the footprint varies slightly. During discussions with the planning department it was suggested that as the existing property is dated in appearance then additional works be carried out as part of the proposals to modernise the appearance whilst making the existing bungalow appear subordinate to the two storey extension.
The proposed extension and existing property have been clad with a mixture of external finishes ranging from painted render, manx stone and timber cladding. This mixture of materials complement each other and have been used on similar buildings throughout the island. The existing profiled concrete roofing tile will be replaced with a more traditional reconstituted flat roofing tile giving the appearance of natural slate. It is intended that the highest quality materials will be used throughout the project in keeping with the surrounding buildings and reflect the high end nature of the development.
We feel the resulting proposals produce a very modern looking property that is in keeping with the current planning policy and similar to other high end developments on the island. The proposals create a substantial residential property that complements the location and reflects the size of a property you may expect to find on this plot. Two computer generated visualisations of the proposals have been included for reference, see Appendix B.
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