Site development plan
Bootham Park planning application
A planning application has been submitted by Enterprise Retirement Living to provide a 170 home independent living retirement community for older people.
You can view the plans via the planning portal, using application reference numbers 21/02108/FULM and 21/02109/LBC.
The site development plan proposes a viable use for the Bootham Park site which preserves the site's heritage and delivers benefits for the people of York. There are other proposals which may achieve the same aim.
The following detail the various options, how they respond to the open community brief and the wider issues which shape development on the site:
- heritage and development opportunities
- links to healthcare
- access to open spaces
- transport links
- housing for all
Heritage and development opportunities
The site features a mixture of grade 1 and 2 listed buildings, including the original 1777 John Carr hospital. Its grounds and setting are also protected by this listing. Whatever the future use and ownership, these elements must be protected and maintained.
A map of Bootham Park showing the listed and unlisted buildings
There's an opportunity to develop some of the newer and less significant buildings which surround it. We're also keen to remove structures and surface level car parking which are seen as detrimental to the heritage of the area.
The emerging ideas also explore how development could take place to pay for the required investments, allowing for ongoing preservation of the site's heritage and developing community uses on other parts of the site.
A diagram showing the potential change to the buildings of Bootham Park
A diagram showing the potential change for the landscape of Bootham Park
Any new buildings would need to be designed from appropriate materials, and to an appropriate size and height in order to be sensitive to the surrounding 'heritage' setting.
Links to healthcare
The consultation evidenced the strong desire for Bootham Park to retain links to healthcare in York. It also focused on opportunities the site offered for the district hospital to expand.
Mental health services need to be provided in more suitable, modern buildings. This will be met by the construction of a new 72-bed residential mental health facility on Haxby Road due to open in 2020.
The site development plan suggests the main hospital building could provide 'extra' or 'step-down' care needed by people being discharged from hospital before returning to independent living.
It could also include 'supported' apartments to meet a growing need for older people to move from less suitable family homes. New buildings would provide apartments for key health workers, a physiotherapy wing and a training and research centre for the Trust.
A map of the healthcare opportunities at Bootham Park.
- unlisted and some grade 2 listed buildings could be removed and replaced by a Medical Training Centre of Excellence
- key worker accommodation
- main former hospital building converted to 'extra care' apartments
- landscape area redesigned to provide a semi-private garden and courtyard space
- childcare nursery directly accessible from the York Hospital site
- multi-story car park with approximately 150 spaces to rationalise parking around heritage buildings and provide extra spaces for proposed uses
- care home
- residential development designed for the senior market
Access to open spaces
Open spaces on the site could provide more benefits for health and well-being. This green space has been used as sports fields in the past.
While many people have used the site's green spaces up until the 1980s, York residents have never enjoyed formal open access to these facilities. Our site development plan hopes to make this happen for the first time.
This could include:
- a play or fitness trail (like at the University and in Homestead Park)
- sports provision for school and community use
The peaceful nature of the site was highlighted during the community consultation, as well as the need to retain links to the site's history as a place for mental health care. The proposals would see a calm, peaceful area designed for contemplation, and a sensory, dementia-friendly area which would also be used as a memorial area for former patients.
Transport Links
Connections to the site and hospital
The proposals could create space for better access both to and through the site, and importantly to the hospital by all modes of transport. In particular, it would drastically reduce journey times for patients in non-emergency ambulances.
Replacing the surface level car park with a modest and well-designed multi-storey coach and car park would improve what is an important gateway to the city as well as widen the access point onto the site.
Walking and cycling routes
Together with the new pedestrian and cycle access over Scarborough Bridge, future development on the Bootham park site offers an exciting opportunity for sustainable and car-free routes connecting the station to the hospital and beyond to the Nestlé site. It would also better connect the community to town and the rest of the city along the pathways around the Ouse.
Paths could run north to south and east to west through the site, separated from road traffic. This would open up access to Gillygate, benefiting both residents and local businesses. It could also provide an improved connection to the footbridge crossing the railway (Scarborough Bridge).
A map of Bootham Park showing the through routes.
Housing for all
The site has potential to provide homes to meet some of York's identified housing need. The emerging plan identifies 199 homes for the site, of these 57 homes could be affordable, including those for key workers at the hospital.
There's also potential to provide:
- family housing
- homes for older people
- homes for those living with dementia
A map of the Bootham Park site showing the housing opportunities.
- mustard - housing (including senior living and market)
- red - key worker accommodation
- peach - extra/'step down' care
- blue - multi-story car parking
- purple - care home
- pink - nursery
- yellow - medical training centre