The abandoned ABC cinema on Lime Street eyed as potential housing
COMING soon to a bit of spare land near you …. new neighbours.
Liverpool has produced its own "Domesday Book" of potential sites for new housing.
It lists 1,200 sites across the city capable of delivering up to 40,000 new homes between now and 2028.
And if you think it won't affect you, gaze over that central reservation across the road and imagine a house or two going there.
Sites include tiny plots available to accommodate just a single house, to huge expanses of space where hundreds of new homes can be built.
High Park Street ReservoirThe land earmarked for residential development ranges from green space, to former schools to vacant petrol filling stations.
Even the central reservation in leafy Brodie Avenue doesn't escape the bricks and mortar brigade - that may well do nicely for a handful of desirable homes.
What about the old Forum in Lime Street and the Odeon in London Road? Or the reservoir on High Park Street? They enter the frame as potential housing sites, as do the allotments at Dingle Vale – if it's spuds versus homes, the chips are down for the grow-your-own brigade.
Report
Greenbank Halls of Residence in Mossley Hill could make way for 250 homes as students drift towards hundreds of new, purpose built pads in the city centre, and around the corner 150 homes could be built at Mossley Hill Hospital.
The city council has embarked on a public consultation exercise about the so-called SHLAA (Liverpool Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment) report it has compiled in partnership with consultants GVA.
The list doesn't mean any particular site will be developed for homes, but is a city-wide assay of large and small sites that could be.
The criteria laid down is the sites listed ought "to be considered deliverable, available and offer a suitable location for development, and be achievable with a realistic prospect that housing will be delivered on the sites".
Liverpool is expected to need around 10,700 new homes within five years, a further 16,700 in the following six to 10 years and 14,700 after that.
Brodie Avenue Central Reservation has the potential for housing, says the report
Liverpool’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Cllr Malcolm Kennedy, said: “This is an important piece of work, which provides us with a starting point from which to define a framework for the future delivery of thousands of new homes for our city. It will be important evidence for our new Local Plan, to deliver the housing, business, industrial units and infrastructure the city needs over the next 15 years.
“Not all of these sites are going to be allocated or developed - nor necessarily will they be developed in the way indicated in the report – but it’s a starter list of the sites that we think have potential for housing development."
As does Dingle Vale allotmentsHe added: "It also begins the process of assessing whether sites are suitable, in policy and physical terms, and the important question of whether they are likely to be viable as development opportunities. We are inviting comments on to make sure the views of local people are taken on-board. It will be one of several opportunities for individuals, communities, land owners and businesses to feed into the council’s Local Plan process.”
Later in the year there will also be opportunities for the public and developers to suggest additional sites, not just for housing, but for jobs, shops and other uses.
The SHLAA is required under national planning guidance to help support the production of Local Plans and it aims to identify as many potential sites as possible which could meet long term housing needs for the city.
Details of the list are available on line, with a breakdown for every one of the 1,200 sites on a ward-by-ward basis via this link.
There's an April closing date for comments.
