Exeter Vision approved

Exeter City Council approve plans for 12,000 homes in 20 years.

Liveable Exeter highlights the property crisis while trying to solve transport challenges facing the city, proposing a need for residents to ditch cars and walk and cycle instead.

Exeter City Council last night voted to adopt the Vision for the Transformational Housing Programme which would inform the production of the Greater Exeter Strategic Plan.

Cllr Pete Edwards, leader of the council, said: “This is a very exciting vision for the future and I commend it to anyone. It is full of ideas about where we are going and I hope that everyone can support this.

“If we do it right then the council is in charge of its own destiny rather than housing builders coming and saying what they want to do to our city.”

Cllr Rachel Sutton, deputy leader, added: “This is a substantial document that does propose dramatic opportunities and changes for the city. It speaks to our ambition to improve on our great ambitions for the city and it is important that people engage with this.”

The Liveable Exeter vision highlights the property crisis while trying to solve transport challenges facing the city, proposing a need for residents to ditch cars and walk and cycle instead.

Some major arterial routes, including the Exe Bridges roundabout and Topsham Road, are shown to be vastly different and partially pedestrianised while the stunning artist’s impressions, which are vision and not planning documents, show how some of the city’s busiest areas could be transformed into leafy, pedestrianised neighbourhoods.

In one of the most eye-catching proposals, Exe Bridges South has been earmarked for a ‘garden bridge.’

The park covering the traffic hot-spot is pictured sandwiched between a partly-pedestrianised Alphington Street and a new ‘cultural destination’ off Western Way.

Councillors on Tuesday night voted to adopt the vision.

The eight big changes proposed by Liveable Exeter:

Red Cow Village (St David’s)

664 homes in new neighbourhood, including new work space, including use of under-utilised station buildings, in a highly accessible location.

Water Lane

1,567 homes in a new place to live and work.

A space for expanding leisure attractions near the quay, with low traffic or car-free development with attractive cycle and walking connections.

Marsh Barton

5,544 homes in a new neighbourhood for Exeter.

The area remains an important employment and retail area, but with the integration of living and working where uses are compatible, to make better use of riverside location.

Development linked to proposed train station. Creation of new types of work space, including light industrial, workshops, office and shared work space.

East Gate

962 new homes, an enhanced approach to the city centre from the east, reduced traffic on Heavitree Road and a greater provision for public transport, walking and cycling.

New places to live close to the city centre will exist alongside existing neighbourhoods.

West Gate

617 new homes, opening up access to the river and canal from the city centre, a new cultural destination on the river, an expanded and connected park at the heart of the city, a Green Bridge promoting active travel across the river.

South Gate

300 new homes, establishing an improved link between the city centre and the historic quayside, with a greater emphasis on the wall, city gates and Southernhay, linking from Southernhay to the Quay, and a new arrival to the city centre from Topsham Road.

North Gate

308 new homes, a new approach to the city from St David’s, uncovering the medieval city wall between Friernhay and Northernhay Gardens, a new living opportunity at density in the heart of the city.

Sandy Gate

1,050 new homes in a new sustainable and well connected mixed-use neighbourhood, bridging the city and the new and existing neighbourhoods to the east, providing recreational, cultural and entertainment space where Exeter meets the newly formed Clyst Valley Park.