Client

Vistry Homes and Barratt Homes

Local Authority

City of York Council

Project Description

Urban Extension

DPP, together with Vistry Homes and Barratt Homes, have successfully promoted a site for release from the general extent of the Green Belt for a sustainable urban extension of circa 735 dwelling on land to the north of Haxby, York.

The City of York has not had a development plan since 1954 and whilst the general extent of the Green Belt has been established in the Regional Spatial Strategy the detailed inner boundaries and much of the outer boundaries have never been set.

DPP were appointed in 2013 to promote the land through the local plan process. DPP initially commissioned a project team to produce a suit of technical reports and submitted these together with a landscape led masterplan which reflected the historic field pattern and the other landscape features. DPP also set out a detailed case for the exclusion of the land from the general extent of the Green Belt.

The site was allocated for residential development by the City of York Council in the Preferred Options (June 2013) version of the plan and the allocation has been retained in all subsequent iterations of the emerging local plan.

DPP have commented on the allocation policy itself, the general housing need and affordable housing provision and the Councils Green Belt methodology and the lack of safeguarded land amongst other matters. In the context of the above DPP have responded to the Inspectors matters, issues and questions and have attended numerous sessions of the examination in public into the draft local plan when a number of concessions were conceded by the Council.

At the time of writing, the Council are awaiting the Inspectors report into the soundness of the draft local plan.

Achievements

DPP prepared a suite of supporting technical information, to demonstrate that allocation of the site was achievable, deliverable and justified and have supported the allocation over a number of years.

Image: JRP