A Scottish Government planning reporter has given the go-ahead for a development on a Dundee site.
Iain Urquhart overturned the city council’s refusal to grant planning approval in principle for 12 flats and a shop at a gap site on Hilltown.
Granting the appeal from Richard Gillis, of Sydhar Properties, he said the development could encourage others to invest in the area and help in the regeneration of the Hilltown.
The application was rejected by councillors in May, despite being backed by the director of city development Mike Galloway.
The site at 224-232 Hilltown was formerly occupied by a tenement block but has been derelict since it was ravaged by fire.
Mr Urquhart accepted the plan put forward “falls far short” of the standards for outside space and car parking set down in the Dundee local plan.
“However, I do not consider that this situation would be much different from some of the existing flatted tenement property in this part of Hilltown,” he said.
He continued: “I accept that in the current economic climate and in an area of low or modest land values it would be very difficult to justify on-site parking for a relatively modest residential and shop development.”
He did not consider the absence of on-site parking would create any significant problems in the area, adding: “It seems to me that the vacant appeal site is very unlikely to be redeveloped if it has to meet local plan standards for amenity and car parking space.”
The plan for a block rising to three or four storeys “would fit well with adjoining tenement property of similar style and would help to re-establish the building fabric and urban form in an area of transition where there are several cleared sites awaiting redevelopment.”
Mr Urquhart said he agreed with Mr Galloway that the development would make “a positive contribution to the wider objectives of the Hilltown regeneration framework”.
“This initiative aims to improve investor confidence in the area, increase housing choice and secure physical renewal,” he went on.
Those are important considerations which particularly in the current economic climate outweigh the failure to meet the planning standards.
The developer will now have to submit detailed plans to the local authority for approval before work can start on the site.