I purchased a redundant, decommissioned utilities (water treatment) building with full planning granted for partial demolition and conversion of the remainder into two semi detached dwellings (split into a left unit+right unit as viewed from the road), with the construction of a new garage block. Though those plans were nice, neither I nor the planning department felt they’re the best use of the building, and I’m massively keen on preserving its character in the established context by not knocking half of it down – especially as new construction is then necessary and this is a rural context
So.. I went away and came up with an alternative scheme that I submitted for some pre-application guidance. I got quite an in-depth response (that was effectively a no) with some very valid points, and I’m now looking for advice on how I can improve my scheme to better its chances as a full application
Imagine a square building in quarters (top down view):
A B
C D
The approved scheme demolishes A and B quarters and turns C and D into one residential unit each, constructing a garage block, patio and turning area on the ground formerly occupied by A B. The existing vehicle access runs along the A / C gable. A new access is to be created running along D/B gable. The road runs along C/D elevation. Standing with your back to A/B elevation and looking out, it is all fields and countryside
My scheme retains the entire building, but rotates the arrangement 90 degrees, putting the residential units in B and D, and using A and C for the garages, reusing the existing access and leaving the area adjacent to B/D gable as garden
1) In the C/A gable of this building, the approved plans call for two 2.1 metre high doors, around 4 metres apart. In my plans, I put a garage door 4 metres wide at appropriate (vertically aligned with existing windows high up the wall) points in both C gable and A gable. The LPA were concerned that these garage doors would be visible from the road
Though this is true,
* they could be made to look as though they’d always been there by finishing the edges in the same way the windows above are finished, and giving them an industrial grey rather than domestic white appearance
* they doors do not face the road (they run perpendicular to it),
* the road itself is a 60mph limit with no pavements and nearly no passing foot traffic
* there’s only circa 7 metres of it a person could reasonably stand to even see the doors
.. with these points in mind, is it reasonable for me to assert that there’s no effective public vantage point from which the doors could be seen/cause an upset to the context?
2) My internal layout of rooms was subject to the criticism that not every bedroom had both access to natural light and an outlook. Again, this is true, one of the bedrooms is lit by skylight and doesn’t have a window in a side wall where any such occupant of the room could go and look out horizontally to see a view. I’m not certain I understand this requirement though, because plenty of buildings all around me have windows that effectively look out onto a gable wall, pavement or other relatively featureless thing and though they have natural light they don’t really look or open onto anything.
What does “outlook” mean? If I put an atrium in the centre of the building so that a person could “look out” into a small courtyard lit from above, can it be said that the room has an outlook?
3) In the D/B gable I wanted to take the existing, high up semicircular windows and bring the corners all the way down to the ground making a large rectangular opening with a semicircular top. The end result would be a gable 25 metres long, with 2 windows of 4 metres wide by ~6 metres high each)
This decision wasn’t taken lightly as I knew it was a bold request, but I found a small number of relevant buildings in the locality, one of the best being an industrial pumping station with similar windows. I replicated the design and proportions/scale of those windows (they were around half the size and the building contained 8 of them per gable) with the addition that a door would be incorporated into one or two of the lower panes to provide access to the gardens for each dwelling.
The LPA cautioned that the windows wouldn’t be acceptable, because the pumping station windows I’d based my design on didn’t go all the way to ground level and mine did .
Where I’d cited other local buildings with similarly large windows, it was noted that these buildings were churches, schools, hospitals and barn conversions and thus were buildings that had a different intended use and character to the utilities building I’m converting. Elsewhere within the guidance, the LPA advised that utilities buildings were often built with impressive or grand features to symbolise investment in local infrastructure, but when commenting on the windows, they said that utilities buildings have a simple utilitarian character/appearance so I’m left struggling to understand how to interpret the advice.
Yes, I cited barn conversions with large windows and barn conversions aren’t utilities buildings, but it doesn’t seem and apples=apples argument. A barn that is now a house with a huge window is no longer a barn and has not-barnlike features (like large windows) so I think the comparison shouldn’t be drawn between the utilities building character vs barn character, I think it should be drawn between current use vs old use of the same building. Large windows in this building would bring a lot of light and passive solar heating in – does making a light, airy space have a residential amenity argument?
Does anyone have an opinion on how I should couch a response to these points?
4) Lastly and thanks for bearing with me, perhaps one of the hardest to overcome concerns the LPA has is that the house D quarter in my scheme has a garden that is about 20 metres wide and deep plus 5 metres wide part that runs between the front elevation and the road. Thus, all of the garden is within 20 metres of the road. This means that the garden area for D is generally publicly visible. As new dwellings are mandated to have 50 square metres of private garden space I’m perhaps stuck. Can a dwelling in such a position (where its curtilage is 20 m deep back from the road, and the dwelling touches the rear boundary, and no other feature is obscuring any part of the garden from the road) have private garden created? Could I put up a wall or hedge in the garden to screen off an area where domestic paraphernalia, washing lines etc could be placed? Can private garden areas be created through use of natural barriers like hedges?
If drawings would help for any of this, let me know and I'll post some up
Thanks guys
So.. I went away and came up with an alternative scheme that I submitted for some pre-application guidance. I got quite an in-depth response (that was effectively a no) with some very valid points, and I’m now looking for advice on how I can improve my scheme to better its chances as a full application
Imagine a square building in quarters (top down view):
A B
C D
The approved scheme demolishes A and B quarters and turns C and D into one residential unit each, constructing a garage block, patio and turning area on the ground formerly occupied by A B. The existing vehicle access runs along the A / C gable. A new access is to be created running along D/B gable. The road runs along C/D elevation. Standing with your back to A/B elevation and looking out, it is all fields and countryside
My scheme retains the entire building, but rotates the arrangement 90 degrees, putting the residential units in B and D, and using A and C for the garages, reusing the existing access and leaving the area adjacent to B/D gable as garden
1) In the C/A gable of this building, the approved plans call for two 2.1 metre high doors, around 4 metres apart. In my plans, I put a garage door 4 metres wide at appropriate (vertically aligned with existing windows high up the wall) points in both C gable and A gable. The LPA were concerned that these garage doors would be visible from the road
Though this is true,
* they could be made to look as though they’d always been there by finishing the edges in the same way the windows above are finished, and giving them an industrial grey rather than domestic white appearance
* they doors do not face the road (they run perpendicular to it),
* the road itself is a 60mph limit with no pavements and nearly no passing foot traffic
* there’s only circa 7 metres of it a person could reasonably stand to even see the doors
.. with these points in mind, is it reasonable for me to assert that there’s no effective public vantage point from which the doors could be seen/cause an upset to the context?
2) My internal layout of rooms was subject to the criticism that not every bedroom had both access to natural light and an outlook. Again, this is true, one of the bedrooms is lit by skylight and doesn’t have a window in a side wall where any such occupant of the room could go and look out horizontally to see a view. I’m not certain I understand this requirement though, because plenty of buildings all around me have windows that effectively look out onto a gable wall, pavement or other relatively featureless thing and though they have natural light they don’t really look or open onto anything.
What does “outlook” mean? If I put an atrium in the centre of the building so that a person could “look out” into a small courtyard lit from above, can it be said that the room has an outlook?
3) In the D/B gable I wanted to take the existing, high up semicircular windows and bring the corners all the way down to the ground making a large rectangular opening with a semicircular top. The end result would be a gable 25 metres long, with 2 windows of 4 metres wide by ~6 metres high each)
This decision wasn’t taken lightly as I knew it was a bold request, but I found a small number of relevant buildings in the locality, one of the best being an industrial pumping station with similar windows. I replicated the design and proportions/scale of those windows (they were around half the size and the building contained 8 of them per gable) with the addition that a door would be incorporated into one or two of the lower panes to provide access to the gardens for each dwelling.
The LPA cautioned that the windows wouldn’t be acceptable, because the pumping station windows I’d based my design on didn’t go all the way to ground level and mine did .
Where I’d cited other local buildings with similarly large windows, it was noted that these buildings were churches, schools, hospitals and barn conversions and thus were buildings that had a different intended use and character to the utilities building I’m converting. Elsewhere within the guidance, the LPA advised that utilities buildings were often built with impressive or grand features to symbolise investment in local infrastructure, but when commenting on the windows, they said that utilities buildings have a simple utilitarian character/appearance so I’m left struggling to understand how to interpret the advice.
Yes, I cited barn conversions with large windows and barn conversions aren’t utilities buildings, but it doesn’t seem and apples=apples argument. A barn that is now a house with a huge window is no longer a barn and has not-barnlike features (like large windows) so I think the comparison shouldn’t be drawn between the utilities building character vs barn character, I think it should be drawn between current use vs old use of the same building. Large windows in this building would bring a lot of light and passive solar heating in – does making a light, airy space have a residential amenity argument?
Does anyone have an opinion on how I should couch a response to these points?
4) Lastly and thanks for bearing with me, perhaps one of the hardest to overcome concerns the LPA has is that the house D quarter in my scheme has a garden that is about 20 metres wide and deep plus 5 metres wide part that runs between the front elevation and the road. Thus, all of the garden is within 20 metres of the road. This means that the garden area for D is generally publicly visible. As new dwellings are mandated to have 50 square metres of private garden space I’m perhaps stuck. Can a dwelling in such a position (where its curtilage is 20 m deep back from the road, and the dwelling touches the rear boundary, and no other feature is obscuring any part of the garden from the road) have private garden created? Could I put up a wall or hedge in the garden to screen off an area where domestic paraphernalia, washing lines etc could be placed? Can private garden areas be created through use of natural barriers like hedges?
If drawings would help for any of this, let me know and I'll post some up
Thanks guys
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