City Hall is considering buying a "dead zone" outside a riverside housing complex amid calls for intervention.
Councillors are looking into "means of acquiring" the large area of undeveloped land at St Anne's Quarter, which remains an eyesore for locals after a decade.
The Orbit Homes site was earmarked for 427 new homes of which 247 have been built. However a section of the site adjoining King Street has been left barren and boarded up for ten years.
Calls for Norwich City Council to intervene are gathering pace and officials are now set to enter discussions with the developer about the future of the site.
St Anne's Wharf, a former brewery industrial site between King Street and the River Wensum, has stood empty since 1999 before it was bought by Orbit Homes in 2014.
The £85m project was set to create 437 new homes and commercial space, but only 247 homes have been built so far and many of the commercial units remain empty.
Recent progress has seen Loungers, which owns Lounge Cafe Bars and the Cosy Club brand, secure planning permission to move into one of these spaces.
While the site remains unfinished, locals are forced to overlook a boarded-off wasteland.
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Amanda Fox, a Green city councillor, said: "No progress has been made at the Orbit Homes site for over a decade.
"The promised homes haven't been built and trees have been cut down - it has just left residents with a long stretch of boardings that attract graffiti."
A WAY FORWARD?
There have been calls for City Hall to seek funding for a compulsory purchase order (CPO) - a legal tool that allows organisations to acquire land or property without the owner's consent - at the site.
This option was deemed to be too much of an "aggressive move", but the authority is considering other methods of purchasing the land.
Matthew Packer, cabinet member for planning, said: "The council should in the first instance engage with Orbit to ascertain why the site is stalled and better understand their position.
"We should consider whether there were any other means of acquiring the site before moving straight to a CPO, and also whether there is anyone else in the market in a better position to deliver the consented scheme than either the current owners or ourselves.
"Our understanding is that the site has stalled due to viability, which in itself would need to be considered in any acquisition.
"We would need to put in significant capital of our own to acquire the site and therefore also have to consider if there would be the potential for any funding that could be bid for to assist."
He added: "The site is essentially clean and tidy and there are no incomplete buildings. Whilst hoarding is not pretty to look at in the long term, properly maintained hoarding is not unpleasant.
"I appreciate the frustrations of residents in this part-built scheme, and we will explore with Orbit what plans they have for the remainder of the site."
DEVELOPERS STILL IN ORBIT
"We appreciate the delays have been very disappointing for our customers, but we are working hard to bring forward a solution. It was unfortunately paused as a result of the pandemic, increased construction costs and challenging market conditions.
"Hoardings are in place around the undeveloped land to ensure the safety of the public. Unfortunately, this has attracted some graffiti, and we are attempting to paint over this as quickly as possible."
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