WORK on the foundations of 3,600 extra Beaulieu Park homes have barely started, and 418 "prestigious" properties at the Marconi factory site only went on sale today – but plans are already afoot for 7,800 new dwellings in Chelmsford.
Chelmsford City Council has produced a report featuring 116 sites that could be developed by 2021, but there could be more areas of land up for grabs by the autumn when the authority will call on landowners and developers for more spots.
The government has asked the authority to come up with a definitive list of where homes can be built up until 2036 as it prepares to shape a new Local Development Plan .
So far the council has built 6,905 homes of its 2021 target.
"We're on target and have a five-year plan for 2021 but after a while we have to give a target for 2036 and start all over again in what is a never-ending process," said city council leader Roy Whitehead.
"We are keen to see Chelmsford expand but in a way we can control and that is the point of doing these consultations."
Back in 2006 central government ordered the authority to find space for 16,000 homes by 2021.
Last week's report, the Chelmsford Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment, spells out precisely how the council is doing and if they are likely to meet government targets.
Yet of the 370 sites listed only 116 have been approved as suitable for building on, promising a return of just 7,813 homes.
This includes the Beaulieu and Channels developments already underway, as well as 178 homes, shops and a GP practice opposite Broomfield Hospital, a project that was last month granted planning permission.
Many development sites classed as "unachievable" by 2021 – a lot of them in a flood zone, in the green belt or currently used as car parks – could still be targeted between 2021 and 2036 though.
The council must hold a public consultation to help design its local plan for the post-2021 period by August 2015. City council cabinet member for planning and economic development, Neil Gulliver, has branded the assessment stage a waste of time.
"It's the confetti of bureaucracy," he said.
"It takes up time and money which could be better spent. I'm worried that with the increase in jobs in the city, which continues to grow to 90,000 at the moment, and with unemployment down to about 1.9 per cent and still dropping, we need to be providing discount housing for people so this assessment doesn't do anything for us.
"I would like to see it abolished tomorrow.
"It's one of those pieces of bureaucracy that no one would notice if it were not there. These sites have been kicking around for development since before I was involved.
"There is so much land and the same sites keep coming back again and again."
Meanwhile, contractors for developers Countryside Zest have started work on constructing an entrance in Essex Regiment Way into what will be a £1 billion extension to Beaulieu Park, including a railway station and three schools.
Contractors will start work on roads within the development next week while engineers will descend on site in late July to prepare the ground for the very first bricks.
"That for us is very exciting and it really will signal the start of Beaulieu," said Countryside Zest spokesman Guy Lambert.
The company aims to start selling the first 233 homes, made up of one-bed apartments to five-bedroom houses, by March 2015.
Deeper into the city centre, Bellway Homes Essex will unveil its "Marconi Evolution" in New Street today, a complex of 418 homes and offices built on the foundations of the historic wireless factory.
Richard Burrows, managing director of Bellway Homes Essex, said: "We are delighted to be involved with the delivery of this prestigious development in the centre of Chelmsford.
"We understand how important this site is for the city and have worked closely with the community and local authority to bring forward a scheme that will really benefit the area."
