CITY CENTRE LIVING April 2004 Development, Environment and Leisure Development Services CITY CENTRE LIVING ‘Since the industrial revolution we have lost ownership of our towns and cities, allowing them to become spoilt by poor design, economic dispersal and social polarisation. The beginning of the 21st century is a moment of change. There are three main drivers: the technological revolution - centred on information technology exchange the ecological threat - based on a greater understanding of the implications of our rapid consumption of natural resources and the importance of sustainable development the social transformation - flowing from increased life-expectancy and new lifestyle choices.’ Part of introduction to the Final Report of the Urban Taskforce, 1999, Lord Rogers of Riverside, 1. INTRODUCTION One of the major objectives of successive Sheffield City Centre Strategies since the late 80s has been to encourage the growth of the resident population of the central area. The benefits of more housing include improved sustainability, vitality and attractiveness, a safer City Centre which continues to live in the evenings and at weekends and the generation of new uses for brownfield sites and vacant but sound buildings. Although Sheffield is in many ways a more ‘liveable’ city centre than many, the housing market in the City Centre was slower to take off in the way it has in some other Northern cities. In the late 1990’s however interest accelerated and is now manifesting in a number of quarters and sectors. Happily this coincides with the strongest encouragement from national Government for more City Centre, higher density housing as a key component of the ‘Urban Renaissance’ outlined in the Urban Task Force Report, national planning guidance on housing and other advice. 1.1 Supplementary Planning Guidance This Strategy will, following public consultation, become a document that will guide future housing development in the City Centre, and it will be approved by the Council as Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG). SPG has a specific purpose and its status is set out in Government planning guidance (Planning Policy Guidance Notes 1 and 2). It does not carry the specific statutory status of the Unitary Development Plan (UDP), but: 2 it can provide helpful guidance to those preparing planning applications it is taken into account as a material consideration when determining planning applications the weight accorded to it will increase if it has been prepared in consultation with the public and has been the subject of a City Council resolution. SPG should always be read alongside the UDP – it is not a free-standing document. This document sets out a strategy to guide further development interest and public intervention. The aims include – promoting investment in the City Centre directing developers to appropriate sites and buildings ensuring the widest mix of housing establishing standards and quality establishing a reasonable balance between vitality and living conditions encouraging supporting infrastructure Note: This Strategy does not deal with issues of design quality. This will be addressed via the Sheffield Urban Design Compendium, which has guidance for massing and architectural treatment for developments in each of the Quarters (see 3.7) 3 2. BACKGROUND Up until the mid-C20th the historic centre of Sheffield was also the most densely populated area, but the growth of industry and pollution and the poor quality of much of the stock led to a slum clearance programme, which was largely completed by 1960. The better quality stock in the Cathedral Quarter and along the West St/Glossop Rd. Corridor was almost completely converted to offices during the same period, Although some Council housing was constructed on slum clearance sites, notably at Townhead St., Edward St., at Parkhill and Broomhall Flats all eventually came to have at best a mixed reputation. No private or housing association development occurred until the 1980’s when the first blocks of housing association flats were built on Devonshire St. A turning point was the demolition of the notorious Broomhall Flats in 1988 and the redevelopment of the 5 hectare site with 270 mixed tenure dwellings including 32 for sale, which were very popular and are still so. This established that there was a market for housing for sale in the City Centre, as confirmed by the Council’s own market research in 1997 and the success of developments for sale at Victoria Quays (1996) and Kelham (1999). In the meantime, however, the City Centre has also seen a major growth in purpose built student housing, driven by the expansion of higher education and the need to discourage further growth of student accommodation in the western suburbs. This has mainly occurred in the Devonshire Quarter where over 1500 new bed-spaces have been created. There has also been a significant growth in the Cultural Industries Quarter (CIQ) around Shoreham Street and Arundel Street (1200), in the Castlegate Quarter (60) and to a lesser extent at Moorhead. These developments have had a major impact on the overall population of the City Centre and have encouraged the growth of other facilities such as convenience shopping, cafes, clubs and bars. This, in its turn, has led to two concerns, first, that student living accommodation does not come to dominate the City Centre to the exclusion of other types of housing for more permanent residents and second, that the residents should not be seriously affected by noise and disturbance from late night activities. There is, therefore, a need to: ensure that housing providers have regard to the wider market which is now opening up in the City Centre which could also include city centre workers, small families and retired people. (A shortage of accommodation for people with physical disabilities has also been identified.) 4 limit the potential conflict between residential and late night venues, such as nightclubs. 3. POLICY BACKGROUND 3.1 City Centre Strategy (1994) and City Centre Business Plan (1996 onward) The City Centre Strategy set out a vision for the City Centre and how this would be turned into reality. The vision was of a multi-functional centre to rival any major city but with an identity and emphasis that was uniquely Sheffield. It advocated that parts of the City Centre, notably Devonshire Quarter, should become the focus for a mix of residential development to complement the emerging student population. Its target was to increase the number of new residential units by 235 during the next five years. By the end of 1997 the annual review of this Strategy, the City Centre Business Plan, indicated that this target had already been exceeded with 318 units constructed since the beginning of 1995. This was the start of a significant expansion of residential development in the City Centre. 3.2 Unitary Development Plan (adopted March 1998) The UDP aims to ensure that there is enough good quality housing in the City for everyone, including those with special needs, and that housing areas are pleasant and convenient places to live in. It advocates that land will be provided in the City to allow for 10,700 dwellings to be completed before 2001, but this is being rolled forward as part of the City Plan document (part of the Sheffield Development Framework) which will eventually replace the UDP. The Regional Planning Guidance for Yorkshire and The Humber includes a requirement for an average of 770 dwellings per year (13,900 in total) to be built in Sheffield in the period 1998 to 2016. It also sets a target for 80% of these dwellings to be on previously developed land. Approximately 4600 dwellings were built up to 2002, leaving more than 9,300 still to be provided. The main locations for housing development are the City Centre, Inner Sheffield and Mosborough. For UDP purposes, the City Centre is defined on UDP Map 10. Essentially, it is bounded by the Inner Ring Road to the west and south, and the rail lines to the east and north. Housing Policy Areas already exist in the City Centre and Policy H10 sets out the types of development that would be allowed in these areas. Policy H12 promotes the development of housing in the City Centre where it would: (a) help to strengthen existing communities in areas where housing is already established 5 (b) create new sustainable communities in areas which would not suffer from unacceptable living conditions, including air pollution, noise, other nuisance or risk to health or safety. In the City Centre Housing Priority Zone, housing will be expected to form a significant proportion of any new development. Housing is the preferred use in the Central Shopping Area except for ground floor frontages in the Retail Core (see UDP Map10 for definition of these areas) – Policy S7 Government guidance highlights the need to satisfy the different demands for housing and Policy H4 promotes the provision of affordable housing in schemes over 1.5 ha or 40 dwellings whichever is the greater area. Policy H7 indicates that, where practicable, mobility housing to meet local needs will be encouraged as a proportion of any new or refurbished housing scheme. Policy H16 requires developers to ensure that there is sufficient open space to meet the local needs of people living in the new development. Housing is also acceptable in areas other than Housing Areas but policies such as IB9b, CF8b, S10b and MU11b aim to protect the living conditions of residents or visitors in Business, Institution, Shopping or Mixed Use Areas. The policies do not allow residential uses where people would suffer from air pollution, noise, other nuisances or risks to health and safety. A list of all the relevant UDP policies is given in Appendix 1 3.3 Urban Task Force – ‘Towards an Urban Renaissance’ The Urban Task Force Report for English cities, published in 1999, put forward a series of recommendations to answer the question set by the Government; “How can we improve the quality of both our towns and countryside, while at the same time providing homes for almost 4 million additional households in England over a 25 year period?” The report concluded that urban renaissance was not only about numbers and percentages.