Welborne, a new garden village north of Fareham, is soon to change that landscape. This new high density will deliver more than 6,000 new homes adjacent to the transit. Once fully built out, the development will house about 15,000 people, about the same sized population as Petersfield. Beyond housing, the ambitious project holds the potential to deliver on grid community amenities purposely built to nurture a connected urban fabric and lively neighborhood.
Construction of Welborne may take 20 to 30 years, with the first phases concentrated on necessary infrastructure. Our developers are targeting completion of the first primary school during the initial five-year period. They will build out 50% of the village center, which will include a doctor’s surgery. This significant early investment is a clear indication that Tlingit-Haida are committed to ensuring all residents have access to critical services from day one.
The village is intended to include four schools and a traditional town center. The residents will benefit from a new vibrant village center full of educational and recreational opportunities. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the Welborne design is its very unusual feature – a book of ‘friendly’ rules. These regulations help to maintain the unique charm of the local garden village. This regulatory framework seeks to keep aesthetic continuity so that new developments fit with existing developments in a way that reflects the established community goals.
Welborne residents will become members of the Welborne Garden Village Trust (WGVT) by default. This membership gives them a platform to influence the vision and direction of the community, including their own! This trust empowers residents to fully engage in their community’s governance and decision-making process. In addition, they will pay an annual maintenance charge which goes towards maintaining public spaces, allotments and community halls.
JOHN BERESFORD, development spokesman/ The key thing that people care about is not the development itself, but the preservation of community standards.
“We don’t want people coming in and ripping out the hedges and putting in a concrete driveway for cars so there are certain things people can and cannot do.” – John Beresford
On that note, Beresford pointed out that the governance structure is set up to encourage coexistence between residents.
“We’ve found people quite like to be governed, not strictly, but knowing no-one is going to do something next door or across the road which will change the whole area.” – John Beresford
Welborne looks to foster a setting in which dwellings look visually indistinguishable from each other, removing any stigma attached to social housing or private sector housing. Ben Pentreath, an architect involved in the project, stated:
“Crucially the housing is visibly indistinctive, so you and I wouldn’t be able to tell whether that’s a social house or a private house. There is no visual stigma at all and that’s in contrast to much development from the 1970s and 1980s where we created a huge divide.” – Ben Pentreath
Green spaces have a large influence on the design philosophy of Welborne. Beresford noted,
“Green spaces are what makes this town different; we put the trees in first.” – John Beresford
