Growth Options document
SECTION 5 - IDENTIFYING DEVELOPMENT SITES
5.1 As well as providing a growth strategy, the plan will also need to identify the suitable sites to accommodate that development. To start the process of identifying the additional sites to fulfil requirements a 'Call for Sites' was held.
Call for Sites
5.2 The Greater Norwich authorities undertook the Call for Sites between 16 May and 8 July 2016, with sites submitted after this date up to 31 July 2017 also being assessed. Notification was sent to a range of individuals and organisations covering planning and land agents, known sites owners (including those who submitted their sites unsuccessfully for possible inclusion in the current local plans), local businesses who may have aspirations to expand and town and parish councils. The call also received extensive publicity in the local press. Approximately 600 sites were submitted. Whilst the call was for sites across the full range of uses, including 'Local Green Spaces', the submissions have predominantly been for additional housing or housing-led development. Additional employment land has been put forward in key locations, including further land at NRP, and the majority of larger scale proposals have suggested mixed uses i.e. housing with an element of employment and/or supporting community infrastructure and open space.
5.3 Although the submitted sites are widely distributed across the area, the distribution is not even. Few new sites have come forward within the Norwich City area itself, reflecting the fact that a large number of brownfield sites within the city are already permitted and/or allocated for redevelopment. For the Main Towns, the volume of land submitted ranged from less than 2 hectares at Harleston to over 593 hectares at Wymondham, with a wide range of sites also submitted across smaller settlements.
5.4 Until the distribution of growth is established it is not known to what degree the sites submitted actually fulfil the requirements in particular locations. As such, additional sites may be required in some locations (see 5.9 below).
Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (HELAA)
5.5 An initial assessment of all Call for Sites submissions that were received before 31st July 2017 have been carried out through a Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (HELAA). The methodology for the HELAA has been prepared and agreed by all of the Norfolk LPAs under the Norfolk Strategic Framework, and is available as part of the evidence base. The HELAA assesses the broad capacity of the sites, and is a desk-top exercise based around Red/Amber/Green (RAG) scores for a range of "Constraints and Impacts" associated with the potential development of those sites. The views of a range of technical stakeholders, such as Norfolk Wildlife Trust, Anglian Water, local authority Conservation and Environmental Health services, and Norfolk County Council's Highways, Ecology and Historic Environment services have been taken into account in the HELAA assessment. The HELAA uses RAG scores to assess the suitability of the sites (for the uses proposed by those submitting the sites) and this is complemented by an assessment of their Availability and Achievability in order to draw a conclusion about whether the site has potential capacity. The full HELAA can be found as part of the evidence base.
5.6 The HELAA indicates that relatively few sites have no capacity for development. Consequently, there is more than sufficient land to accommodate the required housing. However, it should be noted that just because the HELAA identifies a site has capacity for development, this does not mean that it is a suitable allocation site or would gain planning permission.
Sites Proposals document and Response Form
5.7 As part of the GNLP consultation, all of the sites submitted to the councils before July 31st 2017 have been published for public consultation. A separate Sites Proposals document containing all of the sites has been produced. This document sets out the submitted sites on a settlement-by-settlement basis and is available on the GNLP website. Please use the bespoke sites response form to comment on any of the sites and/or the assessment of a site in the HELAA.
5.8 The parish maps also illustrate the existing committed sites; the GNLP is based on the assumption that these sites will be completed by 2036 (many much earlier than that).
Additional Sites
5.9 Whilst the 600 sites have already been submitted for consideration, these may not necessarily be the best sites, or in the right locations. If you have a site which has not already been submitted, and you wish to be considered, please complete the sites submission form and return it to the GNLP team before the end of the consultation (22 March 2018).