Stafford Road Corridor Area Action Plan

Direction of Change -Creating SustainableCommunitiesPolicy Area 4Delivering SustainableLevels of HousingPolicy AimHelp deliver sustainable housing growth andregeneration in the area in line with the targets set in theCore Strategy. It will provide the policy context forspecific housing allocations.Need for the PolicyCore Strategy RequirementsPolicy HOU1 and Appendix 2 of the Core Strategyidentify indicative housing targets for the Black Country.The following targets are identified for this area:a) Housing Commitments (i.e. sites with planningpermission) on Employment Land - 770 dwellings(19ha)b) Housing Proposals on surplus Employment Land –873 dwellings – post 2016 (25ha)c) Housing Capacity on Free-Standing EmploymentSites – 30 dwellings (0.9ha)• Total = 1,673 dwellings (a+b+c)Issues Paper commentsThis Policy Area formed part of Aims 4-6 in the IssuesPaper, and has now been grouped together into onepolicy approach.General support was given to the need to provideadditional housing in the AAP area. Certain sites werealso suggested, such as addressing the future of theNorthicote School site once the school has relocated(this is currently outside the AAP area). A need was alsoidentified for the AAP to understand the impact ofresidential growth on local businesses.EvidenceThe Wolverhampton Strategic Housing Land AvailabilityAssessment (SHLAA) identifies potential developmentsites across the City and assesses their suitability forhousing. The SHLAA update in December 2011indicates that the housing market is slowly recovering inthe current market conditions and that existing‘commitments’ (sites with planning permission) in theAAP area fall short of the figure identified in the CoreStrategy by approximately 180 homes. Howeverongoing discussions with developers indicate that theshort fall may be reduced to approximately 130 homes.The Land Interests Study identifies employment areasthat are likely to come forward for redevelopment basedon the intentions of landowners/businesses, the physicalconditions of buildings and the pattern oflandownership. This Study gauges the likelihood of sitescoming forward for redevelopment in the long term. Ithas revealed that there are sites that will come forwardfor housing development in line with the areas identifiedin Appendix 2 of the Core Strategy, however there aresome exceptions to this. Further details are given belowand in Part 3 to the Options Report.The Geo-environmental Desktop Study covers allpotential development sites in the AAP area andhighlights ground condition and mining risks andpotential land remediation and stabilisation costs.These costs have been compared with potentialdevelopment sites in other parts of the City, producinga rating of low, moderate and high risk for geotechnicaland contamination issues.For the proposed housing sites, all areas were identifiedas having moderate geotechnical risk, withcontamination risk varying between moderate risk tohigh risk. Further details are given in Part 3. It is worthnoting that there are very few sites which have a riskrating below moderate, and addressing such issues area common feature of developing on Brownfield sites inWolverhampton and the Black Country. In addition, theDesktop Study takes a conservative approach andallows for a significant contingency to cover all potentialrisks. Undertaking ground investigations to providecertainty and reduce risk is likely to reduce costssignificantly on many sites. This evidence will be used tohelp indicate the financial viability of sites and the extentOptions Report for the Development of the Stafford Road Corridor21