Q&A with Amanda Reynolds, Founding Director and Architect, Urbanist, Masterplanner, AR Urbanism

Ahead of a new online series of briefings, we sat down with our chairman, Amanda Reynolds, who is the Founding Director and Architect, Urbanist and Masterplanner at AR Urbanism to discuss three hot topics of the moment and to get a taster of what’s to come at the new online series on 'Repurposing Obsolete Real Estate' which starts in June: We asked Amanda …

1. With high streets and town centres struggling, is now the time to look for potential new development opportunities? It might seem easy and straightforward to get change of use etc, but I suspect it’s not. What do you consider are the main challenges?

Change of use for many existing town centre buildings has become easier with recent legislation, however, change of use on larger sites or for larger buildings may depend more on how up to date the local plan is and how forward-looking both officers and councillors are about innovation in their town centres. The world is currently moving fast through the pandemic and restructuring retail habits, while many local plans will reflect out of date thinking about uses in town centres.

Many of our larger footprint retailers are downsizing or disappearing, creating empty and over-sized sites that could be ripe for residential, workspace, leisure, and mixed-use developments, however not all planning departments may recognise these opportunities. One major challenge can be existing building(s) on site, which may or may not be considered to have heritage value. As part of a new development proposal, it is important to clearly explore the potential (or lack of) for existing buildings and to demonstrate this in an early pre-app meeting. 

Listed historic buildings will almost always need to be retained and repurposed, however retaining all/parts of non-listed buildings in a new development can also offer instant identity, character, and townscape continuity, as well as often garnering the support of local people and Councillors to help through the planning process.

2. As well as chairing this new HS Property Hub series, you’re also presenting session 2 on creating a town centre masterplan. Understanding the planning process is crucial to getting any development over the line, so what do you consider to be a few of the major planning hurdles?

In order to create a successful new masterplan for a town centre it is essential that as many stakeholders, including the local community, are involved in the process. To make the planning process a productive one, working with the council’s planning team – as well as heritage, highways, urban design officers – will help to either understand and embed any existing vision that the local authority may have, or to develop a new vision for the centre. 

Engaging in a pre-application process, along with wider consultation, will help overcome planning hurdles, as long as relevant feedback is embedded as much as possible into the masterplan design. Design Review Panels are now common throughout the country and positive engagement with a council’s DRP will also help smooth the process.

At a very practical level, addressing the thorny issues of density and parking is often a challenging aspect of the planning process, although this does depend on where a development is located, as different areas in the country have vastly different approaches to these issues. Understanding both the current local plan guidelines/requirements, while mustering strong strategic arguments in favour of a particular position is crucial.

And finally …

3. Any speculative developer will want to create a valuable asset and generate a profit. What do you consider are the major checklist points to avoid any pitfalls associated with hidden costs?

Costs are not really my field, however as I have said above, while retaining and working with existing buildings can add positives through the planning process, these buildings can also add costs at the development phase, as they can be unknown quantities in terms of structural soundness, ground conditions etc., so balancing the positive potential versus unknown costs may be a challenge.

Many developers do balk at working with existing buildings, however if we are genuinely going to transform our town centres into attractive hubs for the 21st century, this will generally reverberate positively with communities, particularly where they can respect being paid to the memory of the 19th and 20th centuries in the character of their towns.

Join Amanda Reynolds and the other key speakers at the new HS Property Hub online series on 'Repurposing Obsolete Real Estate' which starts on Wednesday, 16 June. Remember that you don’t have to listen on the day – you can listen to the recordings at a time to suit your timetable.

More details at https://www.henrystewartconferences.com/property-hub/hs-property-hub-repurposing-obsolete-real-estate