Many parcels of land are available for development in the city centre, amounting to over 40 hectares. These sites were included in the recent Greater Norwich Local Plan consultation and many feature in the current local plan. They are capable of accommodating new homes and workplaces that are within easy reach of all the facilities of the city centre on foot or bicycle.
As a local planning authority, the city council is working with developers to create new routes between buildings and establish spaces for residents and workers to relax in attractive environments that are greened with trees, furnished with seats and attractively paved. The sites are clustered in the northern and southern parts of the centre that suffered wartime damage, clumsy postwar redevelopment and withdrawal of industry. Anglia Square, St Marys Works and Barrack Street have most transformative potential in the north. On the southern edge of the city centre, Carrow Works and the wider East Norwich Regeneration Area, of which it is a part, represent the largest regeneration opportunity in the east of England, with the potential to host up to 4,000 homes and 6,000 new jobs.
If these developments are to function as part of an enlarged city centre they need to feel connected on foot and bicycle to the energy at the heart of the centre. Improvement of Magdalen Street in the north and King Street in the south is fundamentally important to achieve this.
The land behind City Hall presents a rare opportunity to build in the sensitive civic core. It could feature a courtyard that welcomes the public.
