About York Central Co-Owned (YoCo)
York Central is one of the largest sites currently under development in Europe. YoCo has worked with people who live, work, and play in York to create the YoCo Community Plan for York Central. The YoCo Community Plan is a cohesive, strategic vision for development of the site that includes forever-affordable homes, safe spaces to gather and play, green spaces for wildlife and growing, and a thriving local economy that builds wealth for the whole community.
The YoCo story so far…
YoCo proposed site on York Central
Post it’s from early My Future York session
York Central Co-owned (YoCo) started life as My York Central, a festival of public engagement and events in 2019 looking at ways to develop the York Central site as an urban extension to York City Centre.
The Festival started, and then linked, conversations around:
· density and transport
· living and working
· landscape and creativity
From this grew a bold vision document based on eight big ideas, which would raise the game for future mixed-use developments across the City.
For the City of York Council and York Central Partnership the Vision challenged the status quo, demanding a major shift in thinking and policy. This initially resulted in the failure of much of it to influence the masterplan and outline planning application – resulting in objections from the local community. The application was approved, and York Central Partnership indicated there is room to bridge the gaps in expectations.
Since then, York has declared climate emergency and committed to being carbon-zero by 2030, including removing all but essential car traffic from the city centre within three years. The Housing Delivery Programme has been established with a commitment to building to Passivhaus standards, and the city centre is likely to be substantially reshaped. The York Central project director is now actively working with YoCo to work up more radical ideas than those set out in the Masterplan.
These radical ideas include “forever affordable” housing through community-led co-ownership, and the successful creation of a place which makes cars less necessary.
A further programme of public events was launched during the 2019 York Design Week which focused on the idea of Co-Owned Neighbourhoods on York Central. This built on the vision, asking:
York youth climate strike York Press
The 8 Big Questions
How can we build homes for living in, and not just for profit?
2. Can we exploit high density, and create thriving spaces, where busy is a benefit?
3. How can we build in low running costs through high standards?
4. Can we make space for people, not cars?
5. How can we move beyond zoning, to create adaptable, multi use spaces?
6. Can we create community made through exchange, that can build links between people to address inequalities through sharing?
7. How do we develop a hub that catalyses York’s creativity and innovation?
8. Can we provide public spaces that enable people to be collectively creative?
To enable this, a programme of public events was launched during the 2019 York Design Week focused on the idea of Co-Owned Neighbourhoods on York Central. These sought to develop thinking which was sketched out in the public vision – how to make use of York’s inequality for good? How to create mixed-use neighbourhoods where people lived, but also worked, learned and played, and where this mix of uses was what made them attractive? We brought in experience from elsewhere – TOWN at Marmalade Lane in Cambridge and Citu in Leeds Climate Innovation District – and identified ideas around which discussion took place – sharing, mixing, playfulness, ownership, connections and wildness.
Marmalade Lane TOWN