Members of Leeds City Council’s City Plans Panel will meet to discuss a draft version of the Temple District design brief, which will guide developments in the area
New public spaces, an extra 1,000 homes and 25,000 square metres of office space could help revitalise a former industrial area of south Leeds, according to a document published by Leeds City Council this week.
Members of the authority’s City Plans Panel will meet to discuss a draft version of the Temple District design brief, which is hoped will guide developments to help the area become a “thriving new neighbourhood”.
The Draft Planning Brief for the Temple District stated: The Temple District is well-positioned not only to deliver a thriving new neighbourhood with a mix of uses, as well as to maximise the District’s proximity to the rest of the City Centre and its position as part of the South Bank.
It is therefore critical to ensure that the development of Temple provides the opportunity for high quality connections to be made to surrounding areas, and that it provides the basis for connectivity to employment, retail and leisure, and transport for residential communities to the south, it stated.
The paper suggested there was a lack of new Grade A office space in the centre of town, adding: There are a number of managed flexible workspaces across the South Bank area, however there is a lack of space with larger floorplate availability for growing businesses or relocations on longer term leases and lack of new build commercial development of the type required by occupiers.
The mixed use nature of the area requires a blend of uses and new employment can create and sustain the delivery of new jobs and skills training across the area, as well as providing vibrancy to support associated ancillary uses – all of which is vital to the long term sustainability of Temple District and to the economic recovery of Leeds as a whole, it stated.
Larger public open spaces should be used to create civic-scale areas of public realm that are functional, engaging, flexible, allow for large numbers of people to gather and pass through, and provide opportunities for outdoor events, the paper suggested.
It stated: A secondary layer of spaces and public squares that relate more directly to their surroundings should be delivered. These will relate more to the nature and scale of surrounding buildings to serve the immediate vicinity.
