City Strategy Plans - so vague!

studentguy

Hi folks,

Just reading some city strategy plans for an area we like, I can't make heads of tails of most of them, they use vague language.

Like for example, we're looking at an area which has a few brooks nearby. It looks like the long term plan is to build houses a reasonable amount away (past the brooks).

green infrastructure corridors through the area to include strategic greenways along
Brook A and Brook B and links with Brook C;

The expansion area will need to be designed to incorporate a network of green
infrastructure. This will serve as biodiversity and landscape enhancement corridors as well
as sustainable transport routes. The Green Infrastructure Strategy has highlighted a
strategic corridor along Brook A, Brook B and Brook C as an enhancement zone.
Opportunities for enhancement include reinforcing the biodiversity value of the linear
features including the railway and water corridors and establishing landscape buffer areas.
Further green infrastructure will need to be provided to safely connect the new homes to the
country park proposed as part of the urban extension and other community facilities in the
locality. Opportunities to link heritage assets as part of the green infrastructure network
should also be explored.

Is this good, or bad? The green stuff sounds good, so are we talking nice walkways and a park?

Am I worrying too much, this is a long term plan after all, which may not happen, am I best to just leave it to the solicitors to check?

FTB so scared of making a wrong decision somewhere!

Thanks

anselld

Complete planning BS!

You should probably concentrate on what they mean by "new homes", "urban extension" and "community facilities".

The rest sounds green and wooly but probably non-threatening.

dimbo61

What all this bull crap means is the council are under huge pressure by the government to build more homes.
Green corridors ! So six feet both sides of a stream.
Houses as close to the railway line as we can pack them.
Big building companies using every inch of a building site with the cheap rental/social housing hidden in a corner out of sight.

ProDave

If you are looking to buy a house in a lovely rural quiet location, this is probably NOT the place to buy as that tranquility will come to an abrupt end.

studentguy

Thing is there's no planning permission granted here, the last planning permission that was granted was overturned by the high court due to being unsuitable for the area.

This is something the solicitor should pick up on during searches isn't it?

davidmcn

studentguy wrote: »

This is something the solicitor should pick up on during searches isn't it?

What in particular are you hoping they'll "pick up on"?

The only thing you can guarantee as a minimum is that the searches will cover planning applications for the property you're buying. They won't necessarily include applications for immediately neighbouring properties, never mind ones further away.

If you're interested then you're probably best just to check the council's website yourself. If there haven't been any applications actually lodged then there won't be anything to add to the policies you've already looked at.

pink_pirlie

You appear to be reading the green infrastructure element of the local plan.
You should have a look at the !!!8220;proposals map!!!8221; accompanying the plan as this will set out very clearly on a map where new development will likely be. There will be different colours of shading for different types of development - housing, employment, retails, etc. And it will also show areas they are planning on protecting as green infrastructure.

This will give you a better idea of where it is most likely development will be in the area.

That is not to say a developer won!!!8217;t come forward to somewhere outside the planned area and be successful, especially if the council doesn!!!8217;t have sufficient deliverable supply of new homes.

Developers are involved in proposing land for allocation as housing and in theory sites are usually only allocated if they are proceedable development over the life of the plan (possibly 20-30 year period).

Another document you could review is the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment. This should identify all potential housing land, even that not included in the plan. This could give you further information of potential developer intentions to put in place applications outside those areas allocated for housing.

AndyBSG

These City Growth Plans are completely useless in all honesty.

In Chelmsford the main route into the Town is at 96% capacity but they plan on building 20,000 new homes over the next 15 years... An increase of almost 25% on the current 70,000 homes there.

Nothing in the plan though for new roads to take all that extra traffic!