Guidance Updates for Design and Shopping and Leisure in the City Centre

We’ve recently updated two important planning guidance documents to better shape development in the city, for design and for land use in the city centre. These guidance documents are used by applicants when designing and submitting applications, and by planners when assessing these applications. They are good examples of the sources we use to judge proposals that come to us and to make clear what we expect of new development.

The main changes to the guidance are covered below, with a link to the documents.

 

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Princes Street – The main core of the city centre shopping and leisure area, as shown on the cover of the supplementary guidance.

City Centre Shopping and Leisure Supplementary Guidance Changes

The Council prepares planning guidance for the City Centre under the Planning (Scotland) Act. The guidance is a statutory requirement of our Local Development Plan policy on shops to guide how and where shops and non-shop uses in town centres including the city centre are allowed.

This guidance sets out the change of use policies that apply to the city centre retail core, the boundary of which can be seen on the LDP proposals map and sets out where a planning application for a change of use from a shop to a non-shop use will be supported.

Since the guidance was first written there have been changes that are likely to have an impact on the city centre such as; wider changes to shopping trends, the publication of our City Centre Transformation strategy, the publication of a retail and leisure study, the future opening of the new Edinburgh St James and many changes of use in the centre. The key changes respond to these and cover:

  • Altering existing guidance covering Princes Street to provide significantly more flexibility for non-shop uses.
  • Creating new guidance for Castle Street, Frederick Street and Hanover Street which is much more flexible than the other named streets.
  • Altering the existing guidance covering the frontages of the other named streets in the retail core to be more flexible.
  • Altering the existing guidance covering parts of the city centre retail core outside of these streets by determining changes of use based on whole streets rather than units in a row.

The guidance was written with the involvement of people working in retail in Edinburgh through workshops and was opened to public consultation before being approved by the Planning Committee on 29 January 2020. You can view the updated guidance here.

 

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Leith Fort – recently completed housing included as a model of good design in the Edinburgh Design Guidance.

Edinburgh Design Guidance Changes

The non-statutory Edinburgh Design Guidance sets out the Council’s expectations for the design of new development in Edinburgh. It seeks to raise standards of design in the city by providing guidance on how to respond to specific design issues, from analysing a site, to masterplanning, building design, materials and streets and public spaces. The changes to the Edinburgh design Guidance were also approved at Planning Committee on 29 January 2020.

Following a workshop with elected members and working with our planning colleagues, a number of changes were identified to clarify and update the guidance. The key changes are:

  • A methodology for calculating density to ensure a consistent approach across the city to calculating built density. (p38)
  • Approved council guidance on public art is now included in the Edinburgh Design Guidance document. (p48)
  • Revisions to the parking standards to make their use easier and highlight where it is appropriate to differ from these standards. (p79)
  • Clarification of daylighting and key view assessment processes. (p99)
  • Guidance on designing for people with disabilities (p108) and on single aspect dwellings. (p110)

You can view a copy of the updated guidance here.

Revised City Centre Retail and Leisure Supplementary Guidance Consultation

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Click here to view and comment on the proposed guidance.

The Council prepares guidance for the City Centre under the Planning (Scotland) Act.  The guidance is a requirement of Policy Ret 9, Alternative Use of Shop Units in Defined Centres, of our Local Development Plan. We do this to guide shops and non-shop uses in town centres including the city centre.

The current supplementary guidance for the city centre was adopted in February 2017.  The guidance sets out the policies that apply to the city centre retail core, the boundary of which is defined on the LDP proposals map. The guidance sets out the circumstances where a planning application for a change of use from a shop to a non-shop use will be supported.

Since the original guidance was adopted there has been changes in circumstances that are likely to have an impact on the city centre such as; wider changes to shopping trends, the publication of our City Centre Transformation strategy, the publication of a retail and leisure study, the future opening of the new Edinburgh St James and many changes of use in the centre.

A stakeholder workshop was held on 29 May 2019 for interested stakeholders to raise concerns about the city centre, changes in circumstance and discuss options for amending the guidance to address this changes. As a result we have now prepared draft revised guidance for consultation.

The key changes to the guidance are as follows:

  • Altering existing policy covering Princes Street to provide significantly more flexibility.
  • Creating a new separate policy for Castle Street, Frederick Street and Hanover Street which is much more flexible that other named streets.
  • Altering the existing policy covering the frontages of other named streets in the retail core to be more flexible.
  • Altering the existing policy covering elsewhere in the city centre retail core, by determining changes of use based on streets rather than units in a row.

In addition, an issue related to food and drink uses is the use of outdoor awnings and fixtures which can be considered development and therefore requires planning permission. In the past we would not support such development due to its visual impact on streets and conservation areas and its effect on the use of public space.

However, we may use guidance to introduce policy for considering temporary planning permission for high quality fixtures in the right places. This will allow us to trial and assess the effect of these proposals in certain places.

The Council is now seeking comments on the revised guidance as well as views on the use of outdoor awnings and fixtures. The consultation exercise will last from 9 August to 20 September 2019 and we encourage all interested stakeholders to submit comments on the guidance via the Council’s consultation hub.

Following the consultation we will collate and consider the comments we receive before preparing the final version of the guidance for adoption.