Agenda item

To consider a report of the Chief Planning Officer on an application for the erection of an eight storey building to form University Business and Innovation Centre with café and landscaping

(report attached)

Plans, photographs, graphics and sample materials were displayed at the meeting. Members had previously received two informal pre-application presentations and a position statement on the scheme. The scheme had been amended to reflect Members comments, section 5.0 of the submitted report refers.

Officers presented a report which set out details of an application for the erection of an eight storey rectilinear building to form a university business and innovation centre, to be known as the Innovation City Leeds (ICL) building. Facilities within the building include a media theatre and video conferencing, an innovation suite, networking spaces and a café, and combined enterprise and innovation offices. The building is to be set in an area of hard and soft landscaping. The location of the proposed development is on the site of the Orange Zone Car Park, University of Leeds off Woodhouse Lane, Leeds 2.

Detailed information was provided on the proposal in relation to the following issues:

·  Location of the proposal in relation to the inner ring road

·  East West access arrangements

·  A prominent site within the University complex

·  The proposed tree coverage for the site (loss of 92 to be replaced by 66 creating a larger area of amenity space)

·  The deterioration of the car park surface and the anticipated short life of the existing trees

·  Details of the various floor plans was provided

·  The roof of the building to incorporate photovoltaic panels providing up to 10% of the buildings energy requirements

·   An explanation of the solar shade was provided as part of the explanation of the building’s elevations

Members sought clarification on the following matters:

• Would the proposed glass louvre system be set in a fixed position?
• Would any of the existing trees within the car park area, be protected, what was the overall loss of trees and could further discussions take place on the type of trees to be planted?
• There was concern with the loss of mature trees in this area
• Concern that the building could be too transparent
• Why are the colours to the glass louvers limited to shades of blue?
• Maintenance of the building, cleaning of the glass surfaces

The following responses were provided:

• The external glass louvre system would be set in a fixed position. Consideration had been given for the louvres to be connected to a sun tracking system but this was not considered worthwhile as the energy used to operate them was almost equal to the energy saved
• The trees within the car park were planted within brick borders many of which bulged in places due to tree growth. Given the deterioration of a number of the trees and their age it was considered not feasible that these trees should be retained. In terms of number of trees, there would be a slight net loss (92 removed to be replaced with 66) but the quality of the new trees was much improved and more functional . Also additional trees would be  planted on the adjacent multi-storey car park site which would create a net loss of 18 trees over the two sites
• For future University proposals an audit could be undertaken to demonstrate the potential for additional tree planting within the public realm enhancements on a campus wide basis 
• Blue shades of glass would provide the optimum solar shading for the building. The angles of the  glazing louvers allows light to be reflected creating a cut glass look which should restrict transparency and provide visual interest
• In terms of maintenance of the glass surfaces, the building had been designed so as to create gaps between the windows and louvres to  allow access for maintenance purposes

Members expressed their thanks to officers for the work they had undertaken on this scheme and to the developers for their willingness to take on board the comments made by Members

RESOLVED – To approve the application in principal and to defer and delegate final approval to the Chief Planning Officer subject to the conditions specified in the submitted report , with the inclusion of additional conditions relating to:

• A 5 year landscape maintenance programme
• Provision for replacement of trees if dead or uprooted
• Preservation of existing trees around the perimeter of the development site
• Protection of existing trees and other vegetation around the perimeter of the site
• Further negotiations on the species of replacement trees

and the completion of a legal agreement  within 3 months from the date of resolution unless otherwise agreed in writing by the Chief Planning Officer to include the following obligations:

(i)  A public transport infrastructure improvements contribution of £97,748.00

(ii)  A Green Travel Plan monitoring and evaluation fee of £2500.00

(iii)  Employment and training of local people

(iv)  Agreement to off site public realm works to the Parkinson Entrance to the campus and land at the end of Hillary Place

(v)  Public access areas

(vi)  The identification of an area of land upon which a future public footbridge across the Leeds Ring Road could be landed

(vii)  An agreement to contribute £20,000.00 to traffic regulation orders should it prove that they are required as a result of the proposal