A pilot mixed-use neighbourhood for York Central
Here’s where YoCo’s proposals for a community-led, mixed-use development on York Central are in early summer 2025, following discussions with the master developer, the council, and others. Let’s start at the beginning though…
YoCo’s proposals are rooted in the city’s vision for York Central which came out of the public engagement programme in 2018. People wanted:-
Over the years since then, YoCo has worked to explore what this might mean, with public workshops on Life-Sized Cities, community success through exchange, growing a mixed-use neighbourhood (with Spark), co-housing and design workshops exploring early principles, held online or within the local community.
We began exploring design options with a simple prototype. This is a four/five-storey block of fixed, typical party-wall width which tapers from ground floor upwards, giving:-
A ground floor which would be mainly commercial / cultural / social, with greater depth to create a podium for easy pedestrian access - creating upper (residential) and lower (commercial) street levels.
Above this multistorey residential comprising apartments and duplex units. The number of storeys and hence overall height could be varied to suit consented height allowance within the chosen site, but the aim would be that it would as far as possible give walk-up access from (first floor) street-level front doors.
This allows for resources such as workshop or meeting / eating space, and guest flat, at ground floor level - “co-housing” features which have commercial value but are co-owned for community benefit. So these could be respectively a cafe with a well-serviced bookable meeting space, and a bookable flat which brings tourist income to the neighbourhood when not needed for visiting families or friends.
This gives a good starting point for sketching out an initial pilot development. Based on a combination of potential available land, and a multiple of a workable collaborative client group (around twenty households) an initial proposal has been assembled which comprises twenty prototype assemblies connected into terraces.
This gives a flexible mix of units; as an initial working model we have 12 commercial units and 44 residential units. The commercial units (along with some accessible apartments) are at street level, with a mix of single-storey apartments and duplex (maisonette) homes above.
We are exploring a range of tenure options, all based upon collective ownership. This includes exploring a mix of subsidised rent and shared ownership as this gives the potential for a range of levels of individual ownership (and hence capital input - as demonstrated by ChaCo in Leeds) and a workable basis for investigating the viability impact of this form of cross-subsidy by varied level of ownership. As a next step we aim to investigate other tenure options (eg linked to local wages / etc) to explore improved affordability. This would be best carried out within the context of ongoing recruitment of participants and gaining a fuller understanding of the mix of tenure and housing costs which they require.
...and creating a new Gateway to York Central
YoCo’s proposal has been shaped to work anywhere on York Central.
Flexibility is important as we’re unsure of the exact timescale of our project - experience elsewhere flags up the unpredictability of available funding and the need to respond to opportunities as they appear.
Most recent discussions with the master developer have suggested our proposals could form part of Phase II of the development - following on from the current wave of proposals which will be aiming to seek detailed planning consent later this year. Given YoCo’s proposal incorporates a mix of homes and small-scale commercial street-level spaces, we are keen to locate close to the heart of the new quarter and hence have modelled our proposals on the available land close to the Foundry buildings and between the existing St.Peter’s Quarter and the proposed park.
This gives us:-
The opportunity to create a visually lively, animated backdrop to the northern boundary of the park, and walking/cycling routes across the site connecting the station and city centre
The opportunity to discuss the linking of shared open space with the existing shared green space to the south of St.Peter’s Quarter.
The opportunity to connect street-level creative and cultural activities with future uses of the Foundry buildings and the existing Leeman Road community.
YoCo’s community-led development becomes a near-neighbour and connection to the existing Leeman Road community, and becomes a gateway for the community and a living demonstration of the continuing community engagement in shaping York Central.
It provides multiple benefits of community and neighbourhood - not “just housing” - a mixed community that brings health & wellbeing benefits and addresses loneliness alongside providing long-term housing security, local community wealth-building and community cohesion.
We are currently working to secure a way to carry out feasibility and early project development work, discussing support with the council and Combined Authority. We are also building the group of potential residents - people who would like to live (and/or work) with neighbours they know in this new part of York Central. If that might be you too, then please get in touch via yocoinformation@gmail.com and join YoCo!
