Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council said identifying sites was vital to stop developments in unwanted parts of the borough.
Labour had demanded councils allow at least a target number of homes under region-wide schemes – but the new coalition Government has said this will now be up to councils alone.
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The plans are (for detailed maps click here, 12mb pdf, and use page numbers below):
• 90 homes at Middlefield in Knowle, on a field to the back of Arden School, by Barton Drive (page 63).
• 100 homes on land to the back of Knowle C of E Primary School, off Hampton Lane (p64).
• 150 homes at land off Four Ashes Road, Bentley Heath (p62).
• 100 homes at the former Powergen offices off the Stratford Road in Shirley (p55).
• 1,075 ‘high density’ homes in Solihull town centre (p54).
A council report calls for a ‘phased development of Solihull Town Centre, including provision for the expansion of Touchwood and the development of Mell Square’.
The plans will be consulted on from next month with the hope it will be approved by the end of next year. This means homes could be approved for sites shortly after.
The authority hopes it will give it reasons to reject proposed schemes by developers that do not fit the plan, known as a ‘local development framework core strategy’.
A failure to have such a plan could see schemes rejected by SMBC but then overturned on appeal.
The new local Government minister, Eric Pickles, has written to councils with a pledge to ‘return decision making powers on housing and planning to local councils’.
This meant the West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy – one massive plan for the whole region and used by SMBC – has been scrapped.
But the council said: “The emerging LDF is firmly focused on meeting local needs and aspirations.
“Therefore there is no need to delay its progress in the light of the changing political and legislative landscape of regional and local planning and the imminent abolition of RSS.
“Indeed, to do so would leave a policy vacuum and invite ‘planning by appeal’ as the council react to, rather than drive, the agenda for change.”
It said the Knowle and Bentley Heath homes would be focussed on ‘newly forming and downsizing households’. It is expected to demand a proportion be affordable.
And it said any extra retail space must be ‘limited’ and ‘of an appropriate scale’. Some are unhappy about a Waitrose plan for the village.
It adds it will ‘review the need’ for a mooted Knowle relief road, to connect the Warwick Road either side of Knowle by cutting through the west of the village.
But it has pledged to ‘maintain the green gap’ between settlements such as Knowle and Solihull. A total 3,585 homes are pledged for the borough.
The following would also be earmarked for employment land:
• TRW, Stratford Road Shirley (p72).
• Solihull Business Park, Highlands Road (p73).
• Fore, A34 by the M42 (p74).
• Birmingham Business Park (p77).
The council's cabinet will be asked to agree the plan on Thursday for consultation. The public are welcome to attend.
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