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Application No.: 17/00753/B Applicant: Dandara Commercial Limited Proposal: Conversion of ground floor of office building to create coffee shop, with retention of office use above Site Address: Park House Isle Of Man Business Park Douglas Isle Of Man IM2 2SA Case Officer : Mr Edmond Riley Photo Taken: 22.08.2017 Site Visit: 22.08.2017 Expected Decision Level: Planning Committee Recommended Decision: Permitted Date of Recommendation: 25.09.2017 _________________________________________________________________
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.
Reason: In order to control the use of the building in line with the Braddan Local Plan and Business Policy 7 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016.
Reason: In the interest of highway safety and provision of sufficient parking spaces for the Isle of Man Business Park Service Centre.
The development hereby approved relates to Drawings APL-01 and APL-02, both date-stamped
_______________________________________________________________ Interested Person Status – Additional Persons
None. _____________________________________________________________________________
THIS APPLICATION IS BROUGHT BEFORE THE PLANNING COMMITTEE OWING TO THE NATURE OF THE DEVELOPMENT PROPOSED, WHICH MAY BE CONSIDERED CONTRARY TO THE LOCAL PLAN ZONING AND STRATEGIC PLAN POLICIES RELATING TO OUT OF TOWN RETAILING AND OFFICE DEVELOPMENT.
1.0 THE APPLICATION SITE - 1.1 The application site includes Park House (along with some 28 associated car parking spaces), which is a two-storey office building with floorspace in the roofspace and situated within what is sometimes called the 'service centre' of the Isle of Man Business Park. - 1.2 The building was originally built under the 1995 approval issued to the 'Business Park Service Centre', which included a public house, shop, nursery and showroom. Park House was essentially a site manager's building, but subsequently had this use varied to include offices uses in 2003, which was (and is) more in keeping with the overall approval of the Business Park as a whole: namely, corporate headquarters where there are no visiting members of the public.
2.0 THE DEVELOPMENT PROPOSED - 2.1 Full planning approval is sought for the change of use of the ground floor of Park House, as well as for a replacement of an existing window with a set of patio doors at the rear (southwest) elevation, with the existing and approved office uses on the floors above being retained in their approved office use. - 2.2 A letter from the agent has been included within the application. The letter states as follows:
2.3 It is worth noting that the 2006 vacation of Park House by Dandara was not accompanied by a planning application in that year. The only application that seems to be relevant is one submitted in 2009, and which relates to a detached annex of Park House. Details of this are outlined in paragraph 3.2 below. - 2.4 In view of the content of the abovementioned letter, it is worth noting in full the two Use Classes mentioned: Class 2 - Financial and Professional Services: "Use for the provision of —
2.5 In response to some queries raised by the case officer, the agent commented as follows:
"Further to your mail below and our subsequent conversation, I'm pleased to address the points raised by yourself and by DoI Highway Services.
"Park House has been unoccupied for more than a year, despite continued marketing of its availability. The ground floor of the building currently accommodates approximately 183 sq.m of net office floor space.
"As discussed, the application seeks to convert the whole building to coffee shop & office use, it does not refer solely to the proposed ground floor use. In my view this should allow an appropriate condition to be attached to control office use within the building."
3.0 PLANNING HISTORY - 3.1 The two applications outlined in paragraph 1.2 above carry the reference numbers 95/00147/B and 03/00917/C respectively. The building was also approved for extension under PA 00/00384/B, which was amended under PA 01/01752/B. - 3.2 Aside from these, the only application considered to be also worth bearing in mind in the assessment that follows is that under which Approval in Principle was originally granted for the laying out of the Business Park (PA 89/04166/B). Although this did not include a service centre such as now exists, the 1995 approval was in full detail and reflected a need identified
at the time to provide some form of daytime services / facilities to those working on the Business Park.
3.3 It is believed that the application referred to in the applicant's letter is PA 09/01834/C, which carried the description "Variation of approved office use". Condition 3 attached to the approval notice reads as follows:
"The approved use is restricted to a single company that offers financial or professional services or otherwise falls within Use Class 4 (Offices) of the Use Classes Order within the Town and Country Planning (Permitted Development) Order 2005." These Use Classes are identical to those set out in the 2012 Town and Country Planning (Permitted Development) Order, and which were quoted in full in paragraph 2.4 above.
4.1 The site lies within the larger area zoned on the Braddan Local Plan 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". - 4.2 The scale and nature of the proposal is such that it is considered appropriate to assess the application against General Policy 2 and Business Policies 5 and 7 of the Strategic Plan. It is worth noting the latter policies in full:
"On land zoned for industrial use, permission will be given only for industrial development or for storage and distribution; retailing will not be permitted except where either:
The use proposed is not retail, but it is nevertheless a use that would attract visiting members of the public and therefore has the potential to attract people away from Douglas town centre as presumed against by BP5.
4.3 Business Policy 7 states in part:
"New office floor space should be located within town and village centres on land which is zoned for the purpose on the appropriate area plan; exceptionally, permission may be given for new office space
"It is envisaged that the coffee shop will accommodate somewhere in the region of 70 seats. As explained in the covering letter which accompanies the application, it is expected that a high proportion of customers will be based on IoMBP and will visit on foot. The proposed meeting room and family/kids room will be ancillary facilities for coffee shop customers (who require privacy for a meeting or a more child friendly area, no large scale play equipment will be used)."
"The parking requirement for the proposed use is very similar to that of the extant use; the pattern of parking will be different with more peaks and flows throughout the day. The current arrangement is acceptable and the proposal is unlikely to generate additional parking and is therefore acceptable."
5.3 Braddan Commissioners offered no objection to the application in comments received 21st August 2017. - 6.0 ASSESSMENT
6.1 The Committee will appreciate, from previous applications brought to them in the area and further afield, that there is a significant shortage of employment land in the South of the Island. The Committee will note that this shortage has been exacerbated by the balanced decision made with respect to the approval issued to the 'Cycle 360' concept nearby on the Business Park (PA 16/00938/B), and some members will also recall the refused application that sought to create a mezzanine floor to provide a veterinary service within the Pets At Home store on the Spring Valley Industrial Estate (PA 15/01063/B).
6.2 However, this proposal differs from these in two key ways. Firstly, Park House is set clearly within the existing service centre, which already has a strong element of retail and related uses that provide welcome services for those working on the Business Park (but also, it cannot be ignored, for those living nearby). Secondly, the scale is much smaller than either of the above applications. - 6.3 In respect of the location of Park House, the likelihood is that a number of workers on the Business Park do not have sufficient time in which to travel regularly to Douglas during their lunch hour. It therefore seems that the limited number of people that would be served by the proposed coffee shop could not be considered as being of such a scale as to result in an unduly harmful impact on Douglas' town centre vitality or viability. - 6.4 A further likelihood is that those people who do not work in the Business Park will not view this location as one to choose to travel to instead of Douglas, which has a much larger variety of businesses and therefore offers wider choice / experiences than does the existing service centre - with or without the coffee shop. The desire to restrict out of town retail uses (which, again it should be stressed, the application does not propose) is not incompatible with
4, plus any use defined under Class 2(a): that now sought would remove the latter element. There is no objection to this, with such a condition necessary in order to ensure the development complies with Business Policy 7. It is unfortunate that this was not made clearer in the description of the application, because in some ways it could be judged as being a
6.7 In terms of the initial concern raised by Highway Services, this is understandable inasmuch as the application contains very limited information with regards the parking demand likely to arise from the proposal: moreover, there is no measure in the Strategic Plan stating what kind of parking provision is required for coffee shops or restaurant uses. The 70 covers proposed is a large number. - 6.8 However, the argument of the agent is certainly compelling, inasmuch as the users of the coffee shop are likely to be either (a) peripatetic, and / or (b) have arrived on foot. For those travelling by car, which is considered likely to be a limited proportion of overall users, they will not be staying all day and therefore car parking spaces will become available more regularly than in other areas of the IoMBP, where office workers' cars will likely spend the working day stationary. The judgement of the previous sentence is made on the basis of the location and nature of the surrounding uses: local residents will likely walk; local office workers (whether attending for a meal or informal business meetings) will also likely walk. There will be the occasional visitor from outside of the immediate vicinity, but on the basis of the above this seems unlikely to be so significant as to result in a serious or harmful impact on either parking space availability or traffic flows. The view of Highway Services to offer no objection to the application is therefore understood and accepted, although it is judged that a condition should be attached that limits the number of covers to 70.
7.1 It is concluded that the application is acceptable. This is a balanced judgement, and relies strongly on the location, scale and nature of the business proposed. - 8.0 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 confirm that this decision has been made by the Planning Committee in accordance with the authority afforded to it under the appropriate delegated authority.
Decision Made : …Permitted.. Committee Meeting Date:…02.10.2017
Signed :………S BUTLER………….. Presenting Officer
Further to the decision of the Committee an additional report/condition reason was required (included as supplemental paragraph to the officer report).
Signatory to delete as appropriate YES/NO See below
Application No. : 17/00753/B Applicant : Dandara Commercial Limited Proposal : Conversion of ground floor of office building to create coffee
shop, with retention of office use above Site Address : Park House Isle Of Man Business Park Douglas Isle Of Man IM2 2SA Presenting Officer : Mr S BUTLER Addendum to the Officer’s Report
The Members noted the comments of the Architectural Liaison Officer (were not reflected in the Officer Report), but felt that restricting the hours of business suggested would not be appropriate in this case. Mr. Butler advised that in light of the comments from the ALO and the subsequent discussion, he would not propose to alter the recommendation in relation to conditions but would propose that the recommendation in relation to Interested Person Status be amended to award IPS to the Police ALO as a Government Department that has made relevant material comments.
The development hereby approved relates to Drawings APL-01 and APL-02, both date-stamped as having been received 14th July 2017.
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