Town Housing Plan
As a relative newcomer to Jersey with my bones steeped in architectural design and development, it comes as something of a relief that Jersey does have at least St Helier constable Simon Crowcroft to champion the cause for a more sustainable approach to urban development.
The millennium town park provides an essential open space in what I understand used to be a grim part of town. It has rejuvenated and transformed the surrounding area into a desirable place to be giving hope that the relentless demand for housing should not come at any cost.
Extending the park will consolidate this vision.
The rather crude proposal to plonk 253 homes on to the neighbouring Gas Place site with the inevitable collateral damage that over development brings, will likely spoil this environmental masterpiece built as recently as 2011 and at considerable cost.
The people living and working in St Helier love it – me included and we are thriving off its benefits.
A suggestion would be to look again at the strict planning policies relating to the protection of employment land. Currently proposals to change derelict, disused or unloved buildings to residential use, is a difficult and frustrating process perhaps taking several years. A more common sense approach for the long forgotten pub or redundant corner shop within a residential area should be a no-brainer.
Such development would surely have a more beneficial effect, help tick off the housing shortfall and thereby reduce the pressure for large developments which, like the Gas Place proposal, is out of scale with the surrounding area.
See the original post on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/town-housing-plan-peter-falla-1?trk=prof-post