Community helps shape key development
Plans for a major development in Harpenden town centre have been drawn up with the help of community groups and interested individuals.
St Albans City and District Council is replacing the ageing Public Halls, in Southdown Road, with a new cultural centre in Rothamsted Park.
It is intended to redevelop the Public Halls site into housing and business space, partly to provide £5.5 million to help fund the new centre.
Community groups and people interested in contributing to the designs were invited to attend an engagement event run by an independent expert.
This involved a weekend of talks and workshops with the findings being analysed and set out in a report.
The preferred option that emerged from the discussions for the Council-owned site was for 1,640m² to be earmarked for housing and 900m² for commercial space.
Of the housing space, 40% will be set aside for social housing which on current estimates will provide between 10 to 12 properties.
The rest will be used to build homes for sale to private buyers with this expected to generate around £5.5 million. The business premises will be rented out to provide long-term income for the Council.
In addition, the designs allow for 60 underground car parking spaces, a courtyard within the development and a public square on the Common side.
A public footpath, running through the site from the Common to Arden Grove, is also included.
An update on the plans produced by the community design review was discussed at a meeting of the Council’s Cabinet on Thursday 20 June.
Cabinet agreed the development was financially viable and gave its approval for the project to move on to the next stage of concept designs.
Once this is completed, detailed plans will be drawn up before a planning application is submitted.
Councillor Robert Donald, Portfolio Holder for Property, Commercial and Development, said after the meeting:
This is a major project in a prime location in the centre of Harpenden.
It is very important that we involved the community in drawing up the plans for the development and we have acted on the feedback we received.
We’ll be creating up to a dozen much-needed social housing properties. With more than 700 households on our social housing register waiting for somewhere to live, it is important that we provide as much social housing for rent as possible across our District.
We will also be providing valuable business space to help grow the local economy while money raised from the project will go towards the creation of the new £18.8 million leisure and cultural centres on which work has already started.
The Public Halls had reached the end of their life and I am confident that with community support we are well on the way to producing a high-quality development on the site. We will continue to consult with the community as the plans are developed.
The new cultural centre, due to open in early 2021, is being built on the site of the Rothamsted Park sport centre.
It will include a 511-seat theatre, two function rooms, an exhibition space, bars on two floors and a café overlooking the park.
The adjacent swimming pool building is being extended and refurbished to create a new leisure centre. This will include an improved main pool, a five-lane learner pool, a sports hall, gym, sauna, steam room and café.
Councillor contact:
Councillor Robert Donald,
Portfolio Holder for Property,
Commercial and Development for St Albans City and District Council
Email: cllr.r.donald@stalbans.gov.uk
Tel: 01727 841647.
Contact for the media:
John McJannet,
Principal Communications Officer
Tel: 01727 296130
Email: john.mcjannet@stalbans.gov.uk.