WELWYN GARDEN CITY NORTH DEVELOPMENT
Exempt report of the Corporate Director (Resources, Environment and Cultural Services) summarising the results of stage one of the development and setting out the approach for the next stage of the work.
Decision:
(1) The Cabinet agreed to extend the terms of reference of the cross party Welwyn Garden City Town Centre Regeneration Board.
(2) The Cabinet agreed with the proposed phasing of the project in order to unlock the land necessary to deliver housing.
(3) The Cabinet agreed that discussion be held with the commercial retailers.
(4) The Cabinet agreed that the design principles be adopted.
Minutes:
Exempt report of the Corporate Director (Resources, Environment and Cultural Services) summarising the results of stage one of the development and setting out the approach for the next stage of the work.
As part of a long-term ambition to regenerate Welwyn Garden City a Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) was produced in 2014, setting out a vision for 98 new homes and approximately 6,000 sqm of additional retail space.
Since that time, there had been a significant development with Homes England.
In February 2019, Homes England offered £6.1M to assist with the development of Welwyn Garden City. However, this was predicated on delivery of a significantly larger number of homes than the 98 originally envisaged and the Homes England funding had to be claimed by March 2021. Delivery of additional homes would require the Council to investigate a larger site area than considered by the SPD.
RESOLVED:
(1) That the Cabinet agrees to extend the terms of reference of the cross party Welwyn Garden City Town Centre Regeneration Board as set out in the exempt report.
(2) That the Cabinet agrees with the proposed phasing of the project as stated in paragraph 3.3 of the exempt report in order to unlock the land necessary to deliver housing.
(3) That the Cabinet agrees that discussion be held with the commercial retailers as stated in paragraph 3.4-3.5 of the exempt report.
(4) That the Cabinet agrees that the design principles as listed in paragraph 3.8 of the exempt report be adopted.