Green light for mixed-use waterfront plans

Plans for office buildings, an aparthotel and a multi-storey car park on a prominent riverside site in Leeds have been granted approval.Leeds-based property investor and car parking operator Town Centre Securities (TCS) sought permission for elements of the Whitehall Riverside scheme, covering three parcels of land to the north and south of Whitehall Waterfront.The hybrid application sought full planning permission for buildings 2 and 5 at Whitehall Riverside.Building 2 comprises a 12-storey office with a ground floor commercial unit. Building 5 would be a 14-storey multi-storey car park (MSCP) providing 478 parking spaces, including 56 Electric Vehicle Charging (EVC), 24 accessible spaces and two Accessible/(EVC) spaces, to support the wider development. Commercial and retail space would also be provided on the ground floor.Outline approval was also sought for two additional buildings.Building 4 would comprise either an eight-storey office building, hotel and aparthotel, or an 11-storey hotel or aparthotel. Building 9 would be an office building.The proposal went before the City Plans Panel in March with an approval recommendation.However, it was resolved that the application be deferred to allow for a Daylight Impact Assessment (DIA) to be published and made available to all parties. Members also made comments on the proposed landscaping and biodiversity.In relation to the DIA, the applicant has now removed the consideration of scale relating to Building 9 at outline stage. Initially approval had been sought for an 11-storey structure.This alteration of the application description allowed for Buildings 2 and 5 to be considered in full, with the office and aparthotel (Building 4) considered only for access and scale and the office (Building 9) only considered for the principle of development.Planning committee members in March had been generally supportive of the proposal and the only concerns related to Building 9 and the potential impact upon the existing occupiers of Whitehall Waterfront.The issues about landscaping and biodiversity were also appropriately addressed and the application has been approved subject to conditions.The project team includes Enjoy Design (architect), ID Planning (planning consultant), Re-form (landscape architect), CSD (MEP) Consultant, Optima (highways/traffic consultant), BB7 (fire engineer), Curtins (structural engineer), Oxford Archaeology, Brooks Ecological, RBA (project manager and quantity surveyor) and GIA (wind consultant).TCS has owned the site for a number of years and has worked closely with Leeds City Council over the years to bring forward the initial phases of No.1 Whitehall Riverside (offices), Whitehall Waterfront(residential) and most recently the Premier Inn (hotel) which was completed in 2017.