Meeting discusses plans for 'co-owned' neighbourhood in York

Architect Phil Bixby of YoCo – the York Central Co-Owned collective – said a number of people interested in living in or developing businesses on York Central attended a drop-in and workshop at St Barnabas Church in Jubilee Terrace on Saturday morning.

As reported in The Press, YoCo is hoping to create a ’walkable’, mixed-use neighbourhood of homes and commercial units, with almost no parking, at the heart of the giant York Central scheme.

An 'illustrative' design for the kind of co-owned neighbourhood YoCo wants to create at York Central (Image: YoCo)

“We talked through where we are and what we know, and also what is yet to be decided and how the group as it forms can shape the proposals,” Mr Bixby said.

“There was a lot of discussion about co-ownership and the benefits of being part of a community. As one of the participants said, ‘I rent at the moment. I’d much rather pay rent which supports my neighbourhood than rent which finances my landlord’s pension!’"

Phil talking to people who attended a meeting at St Barnabas Church to discuss plans for a co-owned neighbourhood at York Central (Image: Phil Bixby)

Mr Bixby, who helped lead the public engagement process for York Central six years ago and is one of the driving forces behind YoCo, said the aim was to get away from the ‘generic chunks’ of housing so often built by big developers.

Instead, YoCo wants to create a neighbourhood designed by local people for local people – one which is owned collectively by those who live and work there and where local facilities are within walking distance.

Tentative plans drawn up by YoCo involve two blocks of four or five storeys each. The ground floor of each block would be mainly commercial, with workshops and units for shops and/ or small local businesses.

Above these would be homes – flats or maisonettes – all accessed by street-level front doors.

The idea would be for the neighbourhood to be ‘co-owned’, with subsidised rents and/ or shared ownership, and shared public spaces.

Phil Bixby (Image: Newsquest)

Mr Bixby said YoCo has been in talks with the city council about the possibility of using a strip of council-owned land on York Central near to Leeman Road for the neighbourhood.

Failing that, YoCo will seek a site elsewhere on the huge, 110-acre York Central.

Mr Bixby said another event is being planned for September to take things forward.