EAST Street redevelopers Crest Nicholson and the Sainsbury's Property Company expect to apply for planning permission for the £100-million redevelopment later this year.
The development partners have been meeting with Chris Mansell, the newly-elected Waverley councillor with responsibility for East Street, following the Liberal Democrats wresting power from the Conservatives in May.
Lib Dem Mr Mansell, whose party pledged to negotiate a smaller development than the masterplan agreed by the former Tory administration, is encouraged by how discussions have gone.
"I've no doubt that we can produce a redevelopment that Farnham will embrace and in 30 to 40 years' time people will think 'didn't we do well'," said Mr Mansell, though he conceded negotiating a scheme with developers is a balancing act between securing the right development for Farnham and presenting something financially viable for Sainsbury's and Crest Nicholson.
"The key question is viability. There is flexibility but the strings have to be pulled together," he said.
Before May's election, Lib Dems had doubted how much the development masterplan could be negotiated once the conditional contract had been signed, against Lib Dem opposition, by the then ruling Tories. But Mr Mansell seemed optimistic and Terry Prescott, development director for Crest Nicholson, said changes already have been made to the plans which were exhibited to the public in February and March.
Without wanting to reveal too much at this stage, Mr Prescott said: "We've moved the cinema slightly, but it's still in the town square. The residential blocks are slightly different and we've looked at South Street."
The conditional contract effectively commits Waverley Borough Council to Crest Nicholson and Sainsbury's to redevelop the site.
In a statement to The Herald, Waverley said it is "not in a position to simply change its mind now".
It is expected that all planning permissions and appeals will be complete by December 2006. If there is an impasse between Waverley and the developers at the end of that time, either party can withdraw.
One of the potential triggers for walking away would be "onerous" planning conditions. If the developers thought a planning condition onerous they could request a planning expert to arbitrate between them and the council. But Mr Prescott says he has never had to resort to this measure in any past redevelopment projects.
Crest and Sainsbury's could also withdraw if the scheme is not viable. Waverley, which will receive a down payment from the developers, has stated that a reduction in the scale of the development "will impact directly on Waverley's initial return".
A traffic impact assessment will be published as part of an environmental statement which will accompany the planning application.
The final scheme will be presented to the public in exhibitions, possibly featuring a computer "walk-through" model of how the redeveloped East Street would look.
Mr Prescott and Anthony Shapland, a senior executive with Sainsbury's Property Company, are hopeful of securing the properties they need possession of to start the redevelopment.
The developers are hopeful of securing vacant possession of five sites, including the former cinema site in East Street and the Marlborough Head. To put that in perspective, Mr Shapland said he once worked on a redevelopment in the Midlands that required 67 vacant possessions. But Waverley concedes that the process will be "complex" and might not be complete until after their provisional target date of December next year.