Planning Committee 2.00pm, Wednesday, 2 September 2020 Leith Walk/Halmyre Street Place Brief Executive/routine Wards Leith Walk Council Commitments. 1, 10, 47 1. Recommendations 1.1 It is recommended that Committee approves the appended place brief for the site at Leith Walk/Halmyre Street (Appendix 1) as non-statutory planning guidance. Paul Lawrence Executive Director of Place Contact: Will Garrett, Team Manager, Spatial Policy. E-mail: [email protected] | Tel: 0131 469 3636 Report Leith Walk/Halmyre Street Place Brief 2. Executive Summary 2.1 This report seeks approval of a place brief to provide guidance for a co-ordinated approach to a housing led, mixed-use development on the site at Leith Walk/ Halmyre Street. It has been prepared by the Council’s Planning Service in collaboration with other Council services and has involved extensive engagement with the local community and other stakeholders 3. Background 3.1 There are three areas covered by the place brief within different ownerships. These are shown on the plan in Appendix 2. 3.2 Area 1 - This area sits behind the shops and houses on the east side of Leith Walk. The site comprises a car park for the NHS clinics on Leith Walk. The remainder of the site is vacant. 3.3 A Proposal for Application Notice (PAN) (19/00415/PAN) was submitted for this site in January 2019. It informed the Planning Committee of a forthcoming planning application for flats, student accommodation with gym and associated landscaping. One of the points raised by Planning Committee was that development of this site should be co-ordinated with the adjacent tram depot (area 2). The applicant agreed to hold back the submission of a full planning application until a place brief was prepared for the wider area. 3.4 Area 2 – This is the site of the former tram depot and it is in Council ownership. This area has been cleared of former developments and currently accommodates temporary offices for staff working on the current phase of the city tram project and some ‘meanwhile’ (pop-up) uses. Once the current tram project is completed and the temporary offices removed, this part of the site can be developed, this will be post 2024. Housing Services is looking to progress a housing-led, mixed use development on the site once it is available. 3.5 Area 3 – This is a large, stone-built former mill building currently occupied by a bingo hall. The entrance to the bingo hall is part of the former railway arches along Manderston Street which border on to the northern part of the site. This area has an important impact on the adjacent sites. If the building was demolished it could allow for an additional access to be made into the site from Thorntrees Street. The bingo hall site has therefore been included in the brief but, as its future is unknown, the place brief is written to be flexible – in considering development with or without the redevelopment of the bingo hall site. 3.6 This place brief has been written to ensure that future development on these sites is co-ordinated to avoid piecemeal development and to achieve the best outcomes for the site. 4. Main report Planning context 4.1 The site is bounded by Leith Walk to the west, Manderston Street to the north, Halmyre Street to the east and Smith’s Place to the south (see Plan 1 - Site Context). In the Edinburgh Local Development Plan (LDP), the entire site is within the Urban Area as shown on the LDP map. 4.2 The site abuts part of the Leith Conservation Area fronting on to Leith Walk. LDP Policy ENV 6 (Conversation Areas – Development) will apply to future proposals. 4.3 LDP Policy TRA 7 relates to the tram safeguarding and the route down Leith Walk to the west of the site is shown on the LDP proposals map. This will be a significant factor in the assessment of any applications and the determination of car parking standards. 4.4 There are a number of design policies in the LDP relevant to the preparation of this brief. In particular Des 1- Design Quality and Context, Des 2 Co-ordinated Development, Des 5 Development and Design – Amenity, Des 7 Layout and Design and Des 8 Public Realm and Landscape and Design. 4.5 The creation of good places is a key strand of Scottish Government planning policy, set out in the following documents – Designing Places, Creating Places and Designing Streets. In December 2015, The Scottish Government, NHS Scotland and Architecture and Design Scotland (A&DS) launched the Place Standard assessment tool to support the delivery of high quality place around Scotland. 4.6 The Leith Walk/Halmyre Street Place Brief is another opportunity to deliver the placemaking agenda on a site in the urban context. It also involves the use of the place standard assessment tool in an appropriate form to help capture community aspirations. Preparation of the Brief 4.7 The draft place brief is the outcome of joint working between Planning and Housing services. There has been extensive consultation with officers across the council and other key stakeholders to identify planning considerations and constraints on the site. The outcome of this work is detailed in Appendix 3 4.8 There has been valuable input from the local community, Community Councils and other stakeholders and stakeholder groups in Leith. There has also been discussion with the various landowners and proposed developers of the sites. In addition, there has been a lot of work carried out by the community in Leith to identify priorities for the community and areas of concern. This consultation work has been taken into account in the development of the place brief. 4.9 In January 2020 a series of community engagement drop in events were held and an online questionnaire set up on the council website. The questionnaire was based on the place standard tool. The drop-in sessions were an opportunity to provide local people with some historic and planning context to the preparation of the place brief and to engage in conversation with those attending, to find out more local information about the area. More detail of the events is provided at section 7 of this report. A draft place brief was prepared to reflect the community views and aspirations which were expressed at these events and via the online questionnaire. A summary of the comments received through the initial consultation stage are provided in Appendix 4. 4.10 The draft place brief was posted on the Council consultation hub in Feb 2020. The duration of consultation and subsequent extended period to accommodate the Covid 19 emergency is explained at section 7 of the report. The feedback received through this consultation has been reviewed and has informed the development of the finalised place brief. 4.11 Some of the points raised by the community and other stakeholders include: 4.11.1 Support for development of social/ affordable housing; 4.11.2 Mixed tenure homes for a range of households including families and the elderly should be provided; 4.11.3 Active travel and a reduction in the reliance on car use should be promoted; 4.11.4 A cycle route through the site linking Leith Walk and Easter Road should be provided; 4.11.5 Support for well-designed functional open space; 4.11.6 Community uses and flexible small-scale business uses should be provided; and 4.11.7 Building heights across the site should be carefully considered in relation to surrounding buildings. The Leith Walk/Halmyre Street Place Brief 4.12 The place brief sets out a vision for the site and establishes placemaking principles to guide the design of future development. A key role of the place brief is to ensure that development across the sites is co-ordinated to achieve the best outcome for the existing and future communities in the area. The brief includes design and placemaking principles under the following headings: 4.12.1 General principles; 4.12.2 Movement; 4.12.3 Open space; 4.12.4 Built form; and 4.12.5 Other planning considerations. 4.13 Amendments were made to the draft place brief after reviewing the comments received. A summary of the additional text/general additions are: 4.13.1 A potential cycle connection has been shown through the site linking Stead’s Place and Thorntree Street; 4.13.2 An additional plan has been included showing ‘Indicative vehicular access on the site 4.13.4 Detail setting out what is considered a reasonable area for useable green space across the site has been included; 4.13.5. Reference has been made to the open space strategy to provide a range of potential uses which meet the needs of the community; 4.13.6 Sustainable Drainage Systems (SUDS) are not a single function and are included as recreational uses within green space; 4.13.7 The indicative location of the open space and public ream is shown as more central and provided along key active travel routes; 4.13.8 The development framework indicates that buildings of a lower height should be provided to the south east of the site; 4.13.9 The need for a detailed building assessment of the bingo hall has been deleted; 4.13.10 The indicative plans have been amended to 4.13.10.1 clarify how proposed buildings should relate to existing buildings on Leith Walk; and 4.13.10.2 indicate the area of the site suitable for family/colonies housing and retention of NHS car park.