Work to build the first of more than 300 new homes next to Norwich City Football Club's stadium in a £48m project is due to start next year.
And that will signal the end for a car park close to Carrow Road, on which some of the homes will be built over the next two-and-a-half years.
The vision for the new 'Carrow Quarter' was first mooted back in 2010, but Broadland Housing Association is inching towards the blueprint becoming reality.
The first of four phases of work would see 60 affordable homes built on land between the river and the Laurence Scott test bed building - and is due to start in January.
Planning permission for 250 apartments - a mix of one and two bedrooms flats - was granted to Broadland Housing Association in 2012, with the proposals tweaked the following year.
The housing association has just lodged plans with City Hall for a further 60 flats on the site of a former groundsman's store near the Laurence Scott building. That would increase the number of homes to 323.
The housing association already owns the car park where some of the homes will be built, having bought it from the football club in 2010.
At the time, Alan Bowkett, then Canaries chairman, said it would 'help reduce the club's concerning debt levels', which stood at £23m before the sale.
The housing association, which has offices in the Carrow Road ground, has been allowing the club to continue use of the car park, but that will end when construction gets under way.
The club stressed its main car park, behind the South Stand, would not be affected.
Norwich City Football Club has stressed the main 200-plus car park behind the South Stand will not be affected by the new homes.
They say it is just the gravel car park near to Laurence Scott.
But they acknowledge alternative parking will need to be found for the staff and corporate customers who currently use it.
A spokesman said: 'The club has had proactive and consistent discussions with Broadland Housing about their plans for the land they own near Carrow Road.
'In agreement with them the land has been used on matchdays for some corporate customers and Norwich City staff for parking for a number of seasons.
'Plans for alternative future parking provision near Carrow Road are in the pipeline and details will be announced in due course.
'The main club-owned car park to the rear of the South Stand at Carrow Road, meanwhile, will be unaffected by these changes.'
A £48m contract for the work has been awarded to RG Carter and Andrew Savage, executive director partnerships at Broadland Housing Association, said he was hopeful the application for extra homes would get permission.
He said: 'We are very excited. It will probably take about two-and-a-half years to be build and it will be mixed tenure, so we'll have affordable rent, shared ownership and homes sold on the open market.
'I was involved in buying the land back in 2010 and it has just taken a bit of tenacity to get to this point, with all the funding changes which have happened nationally.'
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