21st Century (2000–present)

Cardiff Local Development Plan

2016 · United Kingdom · Western & Central Europe · National modernization and capital-city building · Planned by Cardiff Council
Aerial view of Cardiff, the city covered by the Local Development Plan.
Aerial view of Cardiff, the city covered by the Local Development Plan. · CC BY-SA 2.0

Core idea

Greenfield expansions + Bay regeneration

Why it matters

Capital growth management

Description

The Cardiff Local Development Plan 2006–2026, adopted by Cardiff Council in 2016, is the statutory development plan for the Welsh capital. It allocated large greenfield strategic sites on the city's north-western and north-eastern edges for tens of thousands of homes, tied to new bus rapid transit and active travel corridors, while continuing the regeneration of Cardiff Bay and the city centre. The plan manages growth for one of the fastest-growing core cities in the United Kingdom.

Significance

The plan crystallised a central tension in British planning between accommodating capital-city growth and defending greenfield land, provoking sustained controversy over its urban extensions and their transport dependencies. It is also significant within the devolved Welsh planning system, testing how national sustainable placemaking policy translates into the growth strategy of Wales's dominant city.

What shaped it

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →
hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.