York Civic Trust has submitted its largest comment in support of a planning application in the last 80 years. The comment supports its strong support for the £2bn York Central planning application, one of the largest and most significant planning submissions ever made to City of York Council.
The Trust has worked closely with the York Central development team since their appointment, holding workshops, discussions and giving advice to help ensure the scheme is the best it can be.
The Phase 1c Reserved Matters planning application represents a major milestone for the £2bn regeneration project on the brownfield site behind York railway station. The application includes plans for nearly 1,000 new homes, a new green park for York, a western entrance to the railway station with a cycle hub and civic square, a 200-bed hotel and one of the UK’s largest new timber buildings.
Given the scale and significance of the application, the Civic Trust drew on expertise from across the city, organising a series of workshops drawing on the expertise of external architects, landscape designers, urban planners, transport specialists and members. Off the back of these meetings, the Trust submitted a detailed 60-page response strongly supporting the proposal.
Image credit: York Central Ltd
The Civic Trust welcomes the provision of public realm that is freely accessible to all, including a large new central park combining nature-rich habitats with community spaces and play areas, a new high street, and innovation in building construction and servicing.
If approved, York Civic Trust will be particularly interested in how the next design stages develop York Central as a new and integrated community within the city. It will also be important to ensure strong connections with the surrounding neighbourhoods. The Trust recommends that local communities are engaged in the ongoing design development of York Central, to create a new neighbourhood and community in York. Such collaborative work is important to ensure that this key opportunity for York meets the needs of existing and new residents.
Andrew Morrison, Chief Executive of York Civic Trust said: “York Central is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the city. It will shape how York grows and how people live, work and travel here for decades to come. We’ve worked closely with the team behind the project and brought together expertise from across York to look carefully at the plans.
We think it is important for the project to achieve a coherent design, that fits with the rest of York’s historic and modern built environment. What makes York so special is how streets such as Micklegate, Bishopthorpe Road and Stonegate have their own distinct feel yet fit together as a coherent whole. York Central ought to reflect the same principle: individual plots and buildings can have their own identity, while having a recognisable York character that feels part of the city, rather than a single uniform development.”
Alongside its support for the application, York Civic Trust has emphasised the importance of delivering consistently high-quality design across the site, ensuring that new housing is well integrated into the wider development and that social and affordable homes are distributed fairly and equitably across the emerging neighbourhoods. The Trust has also developed a comprehensive checklist of outcomes expected from the scheme and will continue to work constructively with the project team to support the delivery of these ambitions, alongside the many positive commitments set out by the developers within this Reserved Matters application.
Now in its 80th year, York Civic Trust is looking to the future and supports the aspirations of the York Central team to deliver a high-quality new neighbourhood for the city.