South Quay Plaza Tower Hamlets Community Forum; 03.02.14 Record of Discussion Attendees: Jerry Bell - Tower Hamlets Council Nasser Farooq - Tower Hamlets Council Emily Harris - Berkeley Homes (South East London) Alex Dietrich - Berkeley Homes (South East London) Julian Carter - GVA Martin Hall - GVA David Ellis - WSP Patrick Campbell - Foster & Partners Emily Rix - Foster & Partners Armel Mourgue - Gillespies Rebekah Paczek - Snapdragon Consulting Approximately 30 members of the public were in attendance. Running Order: Jerry Bell introduced the concept of the community forum and outlined the purpose of the event. Julian Carter introduced the background to the scheme and the project team. Patrick Campbell reviewed the evolution of the scheme, the main components and the public realm aspects of the plans. Focus of the plans is on making this a place to live not just a place to work. The improvements to the public realm are central to this. Currently it is a closed site with hard standing, service areas crossing pedestrian routes and no access to the water. Our proposals will change this to create an open site, with green landscaping, play areas and access to the waterfront. We want to make it a vibrant and welcoming place to be. Q&As: 1. Within 15 minutes walk of this site there are over 11,000 new apartments proposed; there is too much development without plans for schools, transport, energy etc, how is the cumulative impact being addressed? How tall is it? The Isle of Dogs is identified as an opportunity area in the London Plan. There is a need for approximately 2,800 new homes per year in Tower Hamlets and this is due to rise to about 3,400 new homes per year. Planning policy encourages developers to optimise development. The scheme will make a financial contribution towards the provision of social infrastructure, in accordance with planning policy The tallest building is 73 storeys which stands at 240 metres.
2. What is the impact of the building in terms of views? Was this considered? We have to look carefully at the relationship between buildings as part of the planning application. All information relating to this will be contained within the Environmental Statement which also covers noise, sunlight, daylight etc. This is then assessed by an independent consultant to the Council. 3. What will the impact be on South Quay DLR? This is already dangerously busy? A transport assessment will be submitted in support of the planning application. Initial results show that there will be an expected reduction in passengers on the DLR (and generally across modes) due to the change of land-use from office to residential. During the morning peak hour, it is expected that there will be a small increase of around 10-15 people boarding DLR trains due to the change in directional flow (with a reduction in those alighting the train). 4. What about other forms of transport, servicing and access? The Millennium Quarter Plan was intended to have buildings step down which this doesn t? The other aspects relating to the roads, access and servicing have all been worked through in detail and any impact will be considered within the transport assessment. The building is slightly shorter in height than One Canada Square but is a much more slender building. The development has been assessed against the planning policy tests for tall buildings and we consider that it is appropriate for its location. A series of verified views will be submitted with the planning application showing how the buildings fit within the context of the surrounding area. 5. What about the noise impact from the DLR bouncing onto Pan Peninsula? What percentage of space is set aside for non-residential uses? Noise issues are dealt with in the noise assessment survey, which will form part of the Environmental Statement. The scope of the noise assessment has been agreed with the Council. We are confident there is no adverse impact that is unacceptable. Post-Meeting Note: The amount of non-residential uses within the development is likely to be approximately 2,650 sqm NIA. The noise assessment that will be submitted will take account of reflected noise. 6. What percentage of affordable housing will be provided? We are currently in discussions with Tower Hamlets Council regarding the appropriate level of affordable housing, which will be based on the viability of the development. The affordable housing will be provided on-site. 7. Why is it so tall? Does is have to be this size for financial reasons? We are seeking to optimise the development potential of the site whilst minimising the footprint so as to create as much open space as possible. There is a huge increase in the need for housing across the Borough with Tower Hamlets needing to deliver 2,800 homes per year to meet the local need. This is soon to go up to 3,400
homes per year. All developers are encouraged to optimise the development potential of the site. 8. Will it block views? Who will this be marketed to? The development has been designed to minimise impact on surrounding buildings. Information regarding daylight/sunlight and townscape impact will be contained within the Environmental Statement which will be submitted as part of the planning application. The marketing strategy for the development is yet to be finalised but it is likely that Berkeley will target sales both locally and abroad Post meeting note. The UK sales launch will be first with apartments available to UK purchasers first. 9. The site is currently commercial. Who will police the outside areas once the development is complete? Berkeley will put a full time management team in place to maintain the outside space and manage the site from first occupation through the lifetime of the building. This will ensure that the quality of the scheme is retained. 10. Will there will be overlooking into Pan Peninsula? Can glazing be polarized? Why the switch from commercial to residential? The impact of the development on surrounding properties will be considered in the Environmental Statement. The layout of the building seeks to minimise any overlooking. If there is any unacceptable overlooking, this will be mitigated. The site is allocated for residential use in policy and there is a pressing need for housing in the Borough. 11. How many apartments are there and how many people will there be? What is the ratio of car-parking and where is it? What about cycle spaces? What is the distance from the development to the water? There will be around 950 apartments with between one to four bedrooms. There will be approximately 120 car-parking spaces provided, which is below the maximum allowed but is in line with policy which generally encourages fewer parking spaces. There will be ample cycle spaces with one per unit up to two-bed and two per unit above that. There will also be space for staff and visitors to use. The distance from the northern edge of the building to the water will be broadly similar to the current distance, approximately / 5/6 metres at its nearest point. The site as a whole will be opened up and made accessible to the dock edge.
12. What is Plan B if it doesn t go ahead? The intention is to deliver the scheme. If planning permission is received we will start on site in early 2015. 13. What are the timescales? The first phase will take approximately five years to complete. The second phase will take around three/four years. As there is an element of overlap for the two phases, we anticipate completion around 2020. 14. Is the office building staying or being redeveloped? We are working with the owners of that building to improve the public realm. They are intending to extend and improve the commercial accommodation within the building. It is not intended to be redeveloped for residential. 15. Will demolition be pre- or post-consent? Post-consent. We would anticipate starting in January 2015. 16. Some of the leases are extended beyond 2017, how is this being addressed? This will be addressed separately by Berkeley outside of the planning process and we are already in discussions with the majority of the tenants 17. What is the size and depth of the tree planting? Trees will be planted as semi-mature specimens which vary in size depending on the species of the tree. For clear stem specimen trees we would look to plant a range of sizes from 30-60cm girth, which would translate to a height at planting of between 5 and 10m. In order to accommodate the rootballs of these sorts of trees we have ensured a minimum of 1m deep soil is provided for each tree. This has been accommodated above the basement car park slab through a combination of sinking the depth of the slab and/or raising the planted areas above the ground floor levels. In order to ensure healthy and sustained tree growth up to maturity, the overall volume of soil provided for each tree will correspond to its projected mature tree size, e.g. a tree with a mature trunk diameter of 400mm and a canopy diameter of 9.0m would require c.25 cubic metres of soil a pit of 5m x 5m x 1m deep. 18. Has a wind assessment been undertaken as part of the Environmental Statement? Yes, the scope of the assessment has been agreed with the Council and the results will be submitted with the planning application.
19. What is the situation regarding the bridge? Will you be delivering it? We are fully supportive of a bridge across the South Dock and we propose to make provision for a bridge landing point on our site which will enable a bridge to come forward in the future. The delivery of the bridge is dependent on the relevant stakeholders (such as Canals and Rivers Trust and Canary Wharf Group) reaching an agreement.