Agenda item

To consider the report of the Chief Planning Officer on two applications relating to the development of the Eastgate and Harewood Quarter – Application 11/01000/OT being an outline application including demolitions, involving mixed use to provide retail stores, restaurants, bars and offices (A1, A2, A3, A4, A5 and B1 Use Classes), gym, (D2 Use Class), medical centre, crèche, multi-faith prayer room (D1 Use Class), changing places, toilet facilities with new squares and public realm, landscaping, car parking and associated highway works at Eastgate and Harewood Quarter, Leeds LS2 AND Application 11/01003/LI relating to a Listed Building application for works to renovate and repair external fabric of Templar House, Lady Lane, Leeds 2.

 

(Report attached)

Further to minute 92 of the Panel meeting held on 12^th May 2011 when Members considered a position statement on the Eastgate & Harewood Quarter (EHQ) proposals the Head of Planning Services outlined the strategic importance of the development to the city and the planning history of the proposal to bring us to this point. Outline permission had previously been granted for a larger scheme on a larger site in 2007 and the present proposals were for a reworked and reduced scheme on a smaller site. This scheme still presented a new quarter to the city centre and a significant private investment which would enhance the city centre and bring significant regeneration benefits, acting as a catalyst for other development ion the surrounding area. Site plans, architects drawings and 3D graphics were displayed along with artists’ impressions of the proposals. A Member site visit had taken place prior to the meeting which involved a walk around the area and considered George Street and the relationship with the Markets.  

 

Officers provided an overview of the changes to the scheme as:

-  smaller red line development boundary due to the economy and the difficulties arising from developing around the Ladybeck culvert

-  relocation of the flagship John Lewis store away from the culvert to a site adjacent to Millgarth, and the relocation of the Marks & Spencers store to the north west corner of the site

-  creation of Eastgate Square and Templar Square as new public spaces with a public realm and cultural/arts strategies to be devised

-  Templar Arcade to contain retail units leading to a two storey, 20 m wide arcade off Templar Square, to be open roofed and gated

-  Retail mix at ground floor with offices above now proposed for the Blomfield buildings

-  Creation of “Blomfield Street” through from Eastgate Square to the Markets and reinstatement of “Ebeneezer Street” as a pedestrian route.

-  Establishment of an elevated walkway leading from the John Lewis store to car parks, set at such a height above street level that it would allow for NGT passing underneath it on Eastgate

-  The applicant confirmed that landscaping and detailed building design would address concerns over the two areas most at risk from increased wind generation (junction of Vicar Lane/ North St Upper and an area around the John Lewis unit). This matter will be controlled at the reserved matters stage by planning condition.

 

The Civic Architect presented slides showing connections across the city centre and emphasising the connectivity of the EHQ with other city centre destinations and the crucial relationship of the north/south route with Kirkgate Market. External routes had been designed to emphasise the listed buildings at the corners of Kirkgate Market and the internal arcade walkways were set in such a way as to frame the Market.

 

Officers emphasised how EHQ would complement the Market through new and rejuvenated pedestrian links. George Street, adjacent to the Market, was currently dominated by cars, traffic and Market service vehicles but would be widened to create dedicated loading bays for the traders, Hammersons and taxis. Traffic flow would be reversed to flow towards Vicar Lane with buses re-routed via George Street to utilise new double bus stops. Retail units would also be introduced to front the north side of George Street and footpaths widened.

 

The Acting Transport Development Services Manager presented slides showing current Saturday peak hour traffic flows on Eastgate (497 vehicles including 172 buses) and George Street (386 vehicles, no buses). Once pedestrianised, traffic would divert onto the Inner Ring Road, North Street or Quarry Hill. Computer generated graphics of peak traffic flows on George Street following the pedestrianisation of Eastgate were viewed. It was estimated that a reduction of vehicles using George Street could be achieved (down to 275 including buses). 24 bus routes would be diverted onto the Inner Ring Road to access the bus station

 

Officers reported receipt of five additional submissions received after the agenda had been despatched. One letter expressed concern over the loss of connectivity to Quarry Hill/cultural quarter, traffic levels and massing in relation to Quarry Hill buildings. Four additional letters of support had been received. Officers also referred to the supplementary documents sent out after the despatch of the agenda.

 

The Chair had regard to the fact that this was the first opportunity for speakers to address the Panel on the proposals and; with the agreement of the Panel; varied usual procedure to allow speakers a longer but equal amount of time in which to make their representations.

 

Ms M Waugh and Ms S Gonzales addressed the Panel on behalf of the Friends of Kirkgate Market. Briefly their concerns were:

-  impact of the EHQ development on the vitality of Kirkgate Market, the lack of investment in the Market and its’ urgent need for regeneration

-  lack of reference to the Market in the design of the EHQ scheme

-  impact of the loss of the George Street car park on accessibility for Market shoppers

-  the quality of the 4000 jobs to be created by the development compared with the 2000 supported by the Market, most of which were small businesses built over many family generations

-  Concern the Market would become a traffic island, surrounded by busy roads which would be detrimental to the servicing arrangements for the Market and poor provision of car parking spaces dedicated for use by the Market.

-  They concluded with a request for a detailed assessment of the impact of EHQ on the Market and a more substantial offer to repair of the Market buildings

 

In response to questions, the Friends confirmed the group did not object to the principle of the development, but rather to this particular arrangement of development and its relationship to the Market.  The Friends remained concerned that increased traffic around the Market would present a barrier to pedestrians accessing the Market

 

Dr K Grady then addressed the Panel on behalf of Leeds Civic Trust and to emphasise that the LCT planning committee had supported the proposals but with reservations. He added the following points:

-  Vitality of Leeds city centre had been under threat from out of town shopping but this development would seek to promote the retail city centre destination again and protect and enhance Eastgate

-  The relocation of the proposed John Lewis store closer to the existing retail core of the city was beneficial however this was balanced against reservations that the total development was too big, leading to empty shops in the existing retail quarter

-  Regretted the loss of the Eastgate roundabout and Millgarth police station from the scheme as he saw this as a lost opportunity to integrate the cultural quarter. He advocated continuing discussions on how to integrate the Millgarth site once the police PFI scheme was determined.

-  Felt the shopping quarter petered out  on Vicar Lane with an ugly car park

-  Felt that Kirkgate Market was not sufficiently integrated into the scheme, was regarded as being “at the back” and cut off from the development by traffic evidenced by the disparity between the wide walkway to the main John Lewis entrance compared to the narrow walkway leading to the Market and the offer of “kiosks” to George Street rather than “retail frontage”

-  To conclude Dr Grady stated the concerns could be dealt with during the reserved matters process and addressed in the details of the proposals

In response to questions, Dr Grady reminded Panel that the proposed NGT route would include Eastgate, therefore traffic would utilise that route in the future. He suggested that some east bound bus routes could still make use of Eastgate to join Duke Street in front of the Playhouse and expressed concern that increased traffic on St Peters Street/Duke Street would present a barrier to the cultural quarter.

 

Dr R Shaw, independent architect, addressed the Panel over his concern at the proposed closure of Eastgate to traffic and the loss of east-west connectivity of the city at the core of Leeds and a key transport route. He stated he could not see a special reason to pedestrianise Eastgate and he suggested widening George Street to create useful public space beneficial to the Market. Having undertaken his own traffic survey he calculated that 70-80 buses used Eastgate per hour, and concluded that there would be major disruption to Merrion Street/Vicar Lane if Eastgate was closed to traffic and harm would be caused to the historical buildings on Vicar Lane through increased bus journeys.

 

Mr A Hilston addressed Panel on behalf of Hammerson Properties – the developer – and highlighted the significance of this visually impressive scheme for Leeds. Revisions had been made to the scheme due to the shift in retail and investment Markets and in order to respond to Members comments. The revised public realm and boulevard to Eastgate would provide high quality pedestrian areas, excellent urban linkages to the benefit of other urban areas and would provide the catalyst for other regeneration and investment. Overall the scheme would restore and refurbish existing buildings with a mix of uses

 

Members discussed the following with the applicants’ representative:

-  Design of the John Lewis entrance on George Street which was not perceived to be of the same quality as the entrances on Eastgate. In response, Mr Hilston stated the George Street entrance was situated on a prominent corner facing Kirkgate Market

-  Recalled the site visit undertaken to the Hammerson John Lewis store in Leicester and noted that the Leeds John Lewis would have three active facades – Eastgate, the Market and Victoria Quarter, unlike Leicester which had 2 main entrances and was adjacent to a very busy road.

-  Members commented that the Panel would seek activity on all facades of the John Lewis store, and the detail of the Market facing door would be dealt with at Reserved Matters

-  Sought clarity on where the buses would stop, and noted that stops would be adjacent to the Market, with passengers alighting on the Market side

 

The Panel then went onto discuss:

-  Those diverted bus routes which would no longer terminate at the bus station/bus interchange

-  Whether an alternative route to Duke Street could be used for diverted traffic

-  Queried whether retail was intended within Little Templar Arcade

-  Supported the suggestion that discussions continue on how to integrate the Millgarth site once the police PFI scheme was determined as the original scheme presented Eastgate as a boulevard/plaza towards the cultural quarter and Members were keen to ensure future treatment of the Millgarth corner made adequate connections to the cultural quarter and was integrated into the EHQ scheme

-  Need to ensure high quality design as there would be a stark contrast between the Blomfield buildings and the new development

-  Relationship between the John Lewis store and the Millgarth building

-  Welcomed the design of the internal walkways shown on the indicative drawings

-  Noted Victoria Quarter would provide the link between EHQ and the new Trinity development

-  Commented that there would not necessarily be direct competition between the Market retail offer and EHQ retail offer

-  Recognised that the issue of investment in the Market was not a matter for consideration with this application but would need to be addressed elsewhere within the Council

-  Commented that the Bridge Street massing could be depressing and very tall, and whether it could be broken up by relocating the Templar Quarter access

 

The Highways Officer responded that the proposals would lead to a drop of 500 vehicle movements through traffic management and the loss of the public car park on George Street would result in its use mainly by service vehicles and buses. Pedestrianisation of Eastgate was feasible as there was capacity on the Ring Road for additional traffic

 

(Councillor Nash withdrew from the meeting at this point)

 

The Civic Architect confirmed that the John Lewis elevation facing Millgarth could be addressed at a later date if WYP relocated to the Elland Road headquarters; however that PFI scheme remained undetermined

 

(Councillor Nash re-joined the meeting)

 

The Senior Planning Officer responded that the new location of Marks and Spencers at Templar Quarter would ensure that active frontages were included within Templar Arcade.

 

Members further commented as follows:

-  Welcomed the inclusion of the public square in the middle of the development

-  Queried the necessity of the elevated walkway as there would be no traffic on Eastgate requiring a walkway. Officers responded that it was intrinsic to the John Lewis element of the scheme as it provided a direct link to the car park and also formed part of the pedestrian connections to the upper level arcade

-  Expressed concern that a number of the rerouted buses would not have a destination point (ie the bus station) and the proposals serviced the EHQ rather than the city. Members and officers noted a suggestion that buses coming from the west of the city should access the bus station via Vicar Lane/New York Road/St Peters Street

-  Considered that any development in that area would be beneficial to the Market however the design of the George Street buildings should be of similar quality to Eastgate elevations, taking care not to create a retail island around the Market

-  Need to ensure that EHQ was sufficiently integrated into the rest of the Leeds retail offer to attract visitors to the rest of the city

-  One Member commented on the negative publicity generated about Kirkgate Markets; and having recently visited the Market and been surprised by the retail variety and vitality urged the Friends to concentrate on the positive offer of the Markets

-  Noted the request to ensure plenty of landscaping to the public realm

-  Noted the request that there should be no demolition until a scheme was ready to commence on site

 

The Panel was largely supportive of the overall scheme and welcomed the fact that they had previously received update reports on the progress of and revisions to the scheme. Members requested that workshops be held during the design stage prior to submission of the Reserved Matters applications. Members noted the supplementary document sent after the despatch of the agenda containing a revised recommendation and

RESOLVED –

a) To note the following amendments to the report:

-  Reference to Policy T2D to be added to Reasons for Approval after Policy T2C

-  Paragraph 10.82  1). is to read “A Public Transport Infrastructure Improvements Contribution of £749,992.00 in accordance with Policies T2 and T2D as detailed in correspondence dated 9 June 2011 at Appendix 4”.

-  To add after T2C in Appendix 2 “T2D states that there will be a requirement for developer contributions where public transport accessibility to a proposal would otherwise be unacceptable”. 

 

b) Application 11/01000/OT – To defer the application and to delegate final approval to the Chief Planning Officer, subject to the specified conditions contained within the submitted report (and any minor variations and any others which might be considered appropriate) and following completion of a Section 106 Agreement to cover the following matters:

1. A public transport infrastructure improvements contribution of £749,992.00,

2. The employment and training of local people,

3. A Travel Plan monitoring and evaluation fee of £15,000.00,

4. The provision of an area defined for Kirkgate Market’s use only for traders parking, loading and unloading,

5. The provision, maintenance and the hours of public access of defined areas of public realm and landscaping,

6. The provision of 2 Leeds Car Club spaces and a contribution of £9,000.00 to fund a one year membership of the car club for employees,

7. A public realm and landscaping strategy,

8. The protection of the NGT public transport corridor.

In the circumstances where the Section 106 Agreement has not been completed within 3 months of the resolution to grant planning permission, the final determination of the application shall be delegated to the Chief Planning Officer.

 

c) Application 11/01003/LI - To defer the application and to delegate final approval to the Chief Planning Officer, subject to the specified conditions contained within the submitted report

 

(Councillor A Blackburn withdrew from the meeting at this point)