The Strategic Development Framework (SDF) for Glasgow city centre seeks to create a green, walkable city centre that is people-centred, climate-resilient, fosters creativity and opportunity and promotes social cohesion, health and wellbeing and economic prosperity.
Six ambitions have been identified to achieve the vision:
- reinforce the centre's economic competitiveness;
- re-populate the centre and ensure liveable and sustainable neighbourhoods that promote health, wellbeing and social cohesion;
- reconnect the centre with surrounding communities and its riverside;
- reduce traffic dominance and car dependency and create a pedestrian- and cycle-friendly centre, with improved public transport, that is healthier and cleaner;
- ‘green’ the centre and make it climate resilient with a network of high quality public spaces and green-blue infrastructure that caters for a variety of human and climatic needs; and
- repair, restore and enhance the urban fabric to reconnect streets and reinforce the city's distinctive heritage and character.
The final version of the City Centre SDF was informed by the views of those taking part in a public consultation in 2019. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated some trends in office, retail and other uses that were already under way, and the SDF's contents reflect this.
Councillor Susan Aitken, leader of Glasgow City Council, said: “This is a vision for 2050; but our transition to that future city centre, with a population double what it is now, has already begun. The framework will guide just how we establish a better, more people-focused and resilient centre over the next 30 years - an attractive place in which to live, work, study, visit and invest that can compete with any other city. That means creating new '20-minute neighbourhoods': communities within our city centre with all the services that people need close to their homes - and a green grid made up of a simplified network of streets that make it easy and enjoyable to get around.”
The SDF will now be submitted to the Scottish government for consideration. If no significant modifications are proposed, it will be adopted as supplementary guidance for Glasgow's City Development Plan, which informs all planning and land use regeneration decisions in Glasgow.
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