Urb

Urb isn't active any more:-(

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Urb is ceasing business today.  A big thank you to my clients, colleagues friends and family who have shared the great adventure over the last four years.   My contact details remain the same.  Happy New Year to all!

Richard.

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Business as Usual? What next for Planning?  Looking forward to this event next Thursday 5th in the Wood Quay Venue, DCC

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…neither cities nor places in them are unordered, unplanned; the question is only whose order, whose planning, for what purpose…

Marcuse, 1995 (via urbnfutr)

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High Street Renewal Fund by ATCM and UK Dept for Communities & Local Government - This nice little publication has 7 examples of High Street initiatives, showing the organisations, projects and leadership it takes to make big impacts on town centres.  It's available from the ATCM web site here: https://www.atcm.org/programmes/town_teams/resources/high_street_renewal_fund

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Use Classes need change to promote town centre diversity

It is a fundamental principle of the Irish Planning code (like many other countries) that not all development requires permission, and hence a considerable body of law has evolved to ensure that straight-forward or minor developments, do not clog-up the system, and don't have to face delays and costs associated with attaining permission.  'Exempted development' provisions also encompass change of use, and have developed Use Classes similar to the UK system that groups similar planning activities.

The use classes for shops were adopted in 2001 (evolving from 1994 Regs) with the principle that the high street should be preserved for retail, and in particular to control financial services and offices presence on streets in order to promote high-street activity.

There has been fundamental change in the structure of the high-street in the last decade, firstly due to out-of-town retailing, and now by e-retail and m-retail.   Financial institutions are similarly cutting-back on branches in favour of on-line services.  These trends coupled with persistent economic stagnation suggest high-street retail vacancy will remain high for the foreseeable future. 

So  the Use Classes (which promote ease of change from other uses to shops) need to be tweaked/reversed to facilitate exempted development change of use from shops to enterprise, small office, leisure, education, galleries etc.  A more sophisticated Class system would see retail promoted on prime pitch, and these supporting 'town centre' uses on secondary streets (would be useful for retail strategies).  It would mean entrepreneurs could get into town centre spaces without a 3 month delay waiting for permission (or without risk of planning enforcement), and landlords would not have to deal with changes in the planning status of their property.

The Use Classes can be amended quickly, and this change would have a pro-active and positive impact for town centres.

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The plan is useless, but planning is essential.

Local government structure and management around the world owe a great deal to historic military models.   For urban planning though, this great truism of Eisenhower is generally forgotten.  To keep with the military theme Colin Powell is attributed with the line "No battle plan ever survives the first encounter with the enemy".

The necessity to constantly review assumptions, projections, impact and strategic decisions is at the heart of lean-business planning.  To quote Tim Berry (The Plan As You Go Business Plan) "If you don't review your plan regularly, you're wasting your time".

How does this relate to town planning and the Development Plan?  Well once adopted, after torturous process, the plan is effectively handed over for others to do something with.  And if there is an economic depression (lets just say!) a plan that presume rapid  growth, and property development as an economic engine becomes passive and impotent.

The key to dealing with a rigid slow development plan system, is the same as with a business plan; planning is management; a daily activity, where the objectives are measured and reviewed and tested, goals are simplified and scaled to focus on what is achievable.  Rather than sitting back and waiting for development proposals to arrive, all partners in planning come together to review what is blocking progress, and what steps can be taken by the partner organisations (within their powers and influencing outside powers) to drive the changes necessary. 

Urban planning tends to get locked into single-scenario tunnel.  Experienced planners know that a plan is never realised in the way it was originally conceived.  Different players, uses and ideas always emerge over the life of significant projects.  Mature urban areas evolve and change continuously.  The Alternatives Process that is a statutory requirement of EU Strategic Environmental Assessment Regulations is good stress-test for plan-making.  But in the mean-time objective driven area management is planning can be.

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Urb achieves landmark Referral decision at An Bord Pleanala

The planning definition of 'bulky goods' definition of bulky goods has got greyer and greyer in recent years, with 'Retail Warehouse' parks increasingly including retailers whose range of goods more closely resemble town centre comparison items than out-of-town bulky.

Under instruction from Sligo Chamber of Commerce, Urb submitted a Referral to An Bord Pleanala in March 2012 regarding Unit 5 at Sligo Retail Park operated by Home Store and More, on the basis that the range of goods sold by the new operator of this unit could not be considered as 'Bulky goods' and therefore was illegal in planning terms and had a significant negative impact on the town centre.

ABP in their decision of 23rd May 2013 under Ref. 21.RL.2988 have accepted Urb's arguments and have ruled inter alia  that the type and class of goods being sold by Homestore and More is development and is not exempted development.

This decision is significant,  and not only has major implications for Homestore and More's operations throughout Ireland but also retailers of a similar nature in Retail Warehouse Parks.

For more information contact [email protected]

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Cost of George’s St retail space cut in Dublin city centre

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Government gives green light to new planning regulator

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Guidance on Integrating Climate Change and Biodiversity into Strategic Environmental Assessment.  These new guidelines were published in April and provide very welcome and useful content for SEA and SA.

The guidelines can be downloaded at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eia/

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I've been helping out with the Thomas Street Business Association for few months now.  We've created a 90 day plan to create some focus and bring in wider support for renewal of the street.

Its difficult for professional place management organisations to do "a plan" and then implement its actions.  This is because there are so many externalities, interests and actors at play in a real street.  For a voluntary group like ours, its impossible.   So our plan is designed to evolve from from Version 1.0 throughout the plan period. This is because we want it to change, evolve and develop with the people who become involved and take ownership of their part in the plan.

see..... http://issuu.com/thomasstreetdublin/docs/90dayactionplan?mode=window    and https://www.facebook.com/thomasstreetdublin  (Illustration by Stephen Coyne)

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Project Update:  Planning advice on works to Protected Structures

Procedural planning advice remains a central part of Urb's Planning Services.  As a a Chartered Town Planner with 16 years experience in the Irish Planning system, Richard Hamilton provides clients with robust advice on vital development and investment decisions.

Urb was recently appointed by Deercove Ltd. to provide procedural planning advice on the exempted status of works to a Protected Structure in Dublin.

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Project Update:  Dublin BID Submission to the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) on Luas Broombridge scheme construction phase.

2013 will see the commencement of construction of a new light rail line for Dublin linking Stephen's Green to Broombridge Station via Dawson Street, College Green and O'Connell Street (and others).  This 4 year project is perhaps the largest ever infrastructure scheme to run through the heart of Dublin city centre, and poses great challenges for businesses and visitors to the city core. 

Dublin City BID (Business Improvement District) have appointed Urb in association with JB Barry & Partners, Consulting Engineers to engage with businesses and the RPA so as to address construction phase challenges in a pro-active manner at the pre-tender stage.  Detailed consideration of street manangement, communications, traffic plans and contractual obligations are key factors to manage the process of change for the city centre.

Urb’s expertise in Place Management complemented JB Barry’s engineering skill, to assess construction and operational phases of the works.

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Project Update: Greater London Authority: Integrated Impact Assessment for White City OAPF

GLA have contracted Richard Hamilton to prepare an updated SA and EqIA  for the Draft White City Opportunity Area Planning Framework which is being produced jointly by  GLA with London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham and Transport for London.

Covering an area of 110 Ha. White City Opportunity Area is one of 33 opportunity areas identified in the Mayor’s London Plan. The OAPF will help resolve complex planning issues relating to the provision of significant residential and commercial growth.  This provides for a new community of some 5,000 homes and 10,000 jobs over the next 15 to 20 years.

The IIA  incorporates the statutory requirements for Sustainability Appraisal (SA), Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), and Equalities Impact Assessment (EqIA).  The IIA process assisted the development of the Draft OAPF document as well as assessing the potential impacts

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A new kind of Retail Strategy

Following the recent IPI conference on Retail and Town centres, it’s time to return to the theme of the Retail Planning Guidelines, and Retail Strategies, and pose some issues not aired in the conference that day.

It’s a fundamental aim of the Draft 2011 Retail Planning Guidelines to “protect, support and promote the continuing role of city and town centres”.  This is a consistent theme to the 2005 Guidelines, which in principle sought to prioritise town centre retail through approaches such as sequential testing.  It didn’t work. 

The roll-out of retail strategies, resulted in the over-estimation, and over-supply of retail floor space generally in all the wrong areas.  It also pitched the existing town centre retailers in an adversarial or “protectionist” role against the people they supported with their rates, as Councils went in search of new rates base.   The problems with the approach to Retail Strategies over the last 10 years were numerous, and the results on the ground speak for themselves, and the penny is dropping.

What’s important now though, is to look at the new Guidelines and ask can we to do something useful and different?  The answer is yes, but it will mean that Council’s will need to stop hiring the same old people to do the same old thing.

The key lies in the new National Policy Objectives:

1.      Retail development should be plan-led, including the identification of retail requirements and appropriate planning policies and objectives, and the implementation of city and town centre management strategies aimed at securing development plan objectives.

2.      The planning system should focus on promoting and supporting the vitality and viability of city and town centres in facilitating the requirements of the retail sector.

3.      The planning system should play a key role in ensuring competitiveness in the retail sector, particularly through city / town centre management strategies and active land management approaches aimed at new market entrants, encouraging necessary development in suitable locations, and advancing choice of retail outlets for the consumer.

4.      The planning system should promote forms of retail development that in themselves will encourage greater use of sustainable transport modes including public transport, cycling and walking in accordance with the Smarter Travel strategy.

5.      Retail development has a key role in delivering quality in the built environment by contributing to a high standard of urban design.

The inclusion of Town Centre Management strategy in the first and third NPOs is significant, but it can’t be left as an abstract measure for the implementation section.  It has to be done as an integral part of the Retail Strategy, where the Strategy needs to become a process; a living document.  This requires Councils and Business Communities to roll-up the sleeves and work in Partnership. 

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Retail Excellence Ireland's town centre survey

The Retail Excellence Ireland Town and City Review was published at the weekend in the Sunday Independent newspaper.  This is the follow up to the Town and City Framework document which is available at www.retailexcellence.ie.

It has to be said that it is a useful exercise, and hats-off to REI for taking this step. It is the first national consumer survey of how various cohorts of people perceive and use town centres,  through interviews of some 11,000 people in September of this year. It also includes  some 5,000 ‘Stakeholder’ interview which are presumed to be REI members in the various towns.

It shows the most important factor in town and city visits is proximity to living place, and second most the standard of retailer.  Public transport is bottom of the priority list, followed by events and promotions.  Parking issues are shown to have about the same level of importance as dining and entertainment alternatives,  and atmosphere.

The issue of proximity has been largely ignored in REI’s publicity in favour of ‘Retail Mix’ but it is statistically the most important issue.  So all those Retail Impact Statements that tell us people will travel an hour for a shopping centre need to be questioned.  Proximity could also be interpreted as ease of access (by private car).  So if you have to sit in 5 less sets of traffic lights to get to the retail park along the by-pass, this would be a major factor.  It also shows Planning Policies which only encourage public transport access to town centres, and discourage car visits may be having a serious detrimental effect (This reflects Portas Review in UK).

The results also reflect more detailed studies from Philadelphia that show  successful commercial corridors have 3 key characteristics: 1.Store Density, 2.Store mix and 3. Parking availability.  As repeatedly referred to here, Marylebone High Street London is a great example of the importance of getting the right retail mix, if people are willing to learn the lessons.

At the end of the day this isn’t a league table of 100 towns in Ireland. How does a town know what measures in can take to climb up the league table?  REI don’t seem keen to point the finger at any particular town or county, and say you’re doing a good or a bad job.  

The report has 3 recommended measures: 1) form a town team, 2) develop a town plan, and 3) use the town and city framework document produced by REI.  But this isn’t really enough.  We all know setting up committees or preparing nice plans can be absolutely meaningless unless we ask what they do, who does it, and where financial support comes from?  What is the role of the Town and County Managers credited at the back of the report for their assistance?  Will they start supporting town centre partnerships, and bottom-up initiatives?  What do they know about retail mix? They like spending public money on county halls, libraries and roads.

 Evidence from America has found the most Effective Programmatic Interventions are:

  §  Leadership and Management

§  Actions taken to prevent crime

§  Improvements to the overall physical environment

If we learn from the TCM/BIDs experience, we can save a lot of time.  Thankfully, REI are doing a good job in doing some research, but the Minister and his department have got to do more than turn up for the launch.