Agenda item

Agenda item

Knott Mill Masterplan

The report of the Strategic Director (Development) is attached

Minutes:

The Knott Mill area is located south west of the city centre close to the Castlefield neighbourhood, Whitworth Street West, First Street and the Great Jackson Street regeneration area. Knott Mill is adjacent to the River Medlock and is close to Deansgate Railway Station and Deansgate-Castlefield Metrolink Station. Knott Mill has a distinctive sense of place and unique characteristics due to the presence of key buildings of architectural, historical and cultural importance. The area’s important heritage buildings provide a very different look and feel to that of adjacent neighbourhoods. However, surface car parks, under-utilised buildings and gap sites diminish the local townscape as does the quality of public amenity space and public realm.

 

A report submitted by the Strategic Director, Development explained that a “Knott Mill Masterplan” had been prepared by the Knott Mill Association, representing the major landowners within the area. This sought to establish a strategy to guide future development within the area that acknowledged the area’s character and improved environment quality and connections both within Knott Mill and with neighbouring areas.

 

The design principles set out in the draft Masterplan were:

·         The scope for Knott Mill to accommodate commercially-led development alongside the provision of new homes. It was envisaged that at least 60% of the new space created will be allocated to employment uses. The ambition was to create a critical mass of workspace and residential accommodation to support a range of amenity uses, in particular independent, small-scale retail, and food and beverage outlets.

·         The ground and first floors of all new development and building refurbishments should seek to incorporate workspace aimed at creative industries and independent operators. This would help enliven the area at street level and contribute to evening and weekend activity.

·         As a city centre location with strong transport connections, the neighbourhood should be particularly attractive to small/medium sized creative industry businesses and start-ups, building on the sector’s long-established success in Knott Mill. The masterplan set out a vision to further grow this sector within the area.

 

The report described other key elements of the draft Masterplan including a proposal to create a new “pocket park” at the junction of Commercial Street and Constance Street, surrounded by independent cafés.

 

The draft masterplan’s economic analysis identified the capacity for Knott Mill to accommodate up to 21,400m2 of new commercial floor space, including elements of retail and leisure. New commercial development could potentially generate up to 750 new jobs. The residential developments could result in around 150 new homes.

 

We agreed that Knott Mill is an intrinsic part of the city centre. Given its established business base and the existence of a number of development-ready sites, this distinctive area had the potential to play a significant part in meeting current and future demand for commercial space and new homes in the city centre.  This development could help to support the population and economic growth of the city. We therefore endorsed the draft Masterplan as the basis of public consultation.

 

Decisions

 

1.         To approve in principle the draft Knott Mill Masterplan.

 

2.         To request the Chief Executive undertake a public consultation exercise on the masterplan with local stakeholders and that a further report be brought forward, following the public consultation exercise, setting out comments received.

 

Supporting documents: