Next year will be one of destiny for Brighton and Hove as the future of three key developments is decided.

After 50 years of waiting, work has finally started on building a library in Jubilee Street.

The scheme also includes a hotel, shops, offices, restaurants, cafes, bars and a public square.

A few hundred yards to the north lies the former locomotive yards of Brighton station, derelict since the days of steam.

Only this month, city planners gave permission for a £150 million urban village that will provide hundreds of homes and jobs.

In 2003, the planning battlegrounds will be on three other major sites which have also been semi-derelict for far too long.

First, planners have to decide on a couple of more minor applications which could set a trend for development in the years ahead.

There was a fashion in the Sixties for building tower blocks. The Albion Hill area was razed to the ground in Brighton and replaced by yellow-brick flats.

More were built off St James's Street and Edward Street, while four went up in Conway Street in Hove.

The tallest council tower of all was built near the station and named Theobald House.

The private sector did not stand idle and Chartwell Court was built at Churchill Square. The fire-damaged Bedford Hotel was replaced with a tower and the biggest block of the lot, Sussex Heights, was stuck behind the Metropole Hotel.

Suddenly a halt was called to blocks in the Seventies. A second scheme for Churchill Square was abandoned and council building went low-rise. Skyscrapers seemed out - until now.

Two factors have spurred a revival. One is the insistence of the Government on building at a greater density on brownfield sites to make the best use of them.

The other is the determination of Brighton and Hove City Council to go for big, bold architecture, which can be high if it is good.

Developer Deltastar has employed Lomax Cassidy and Edwards, a local firm, to design a 16-storey skyscraper on the site of Medina House on King's Esplanade.

This slim tower would be far taller than the squat neighbouring blocks of Flag Court, Benham Court and Bath Court.

It would certainly be more imaginatively designed. But would it be too much for the area, placing nearby buildings in the shade?

That is what the neighbours think and it will soon be up to the planners to decide.

The adventurous property firm Karis, already building a modern development at Connaught Road in Hove, has plans for an 18-storey skyscraper at the Endeavour Garage site in Preston Road, Brighton.

It has hired top architect Piers Gough to prepare the design. His conical development is certainly challenging but, predictably, the locals do not like it.

Once again, planners have to decide whether to go for a gateway building on this prime site or to stick with the less adventurous design, which already has consent.

The Hove tower could have implications for redeveloping the nearby King Alfred site, where a leisure centre is planned, along with up to 400 homes.

Four consortia are vying with each other to produce plans for this site. They are engaging some of the world's top architects, including the ubiquitous Piers Gough, Frank Gehry (whose Bilbao museum is one of the great modern structures of the world) and Lord Richard Rodgers.

It is almost certain one, if not all of them, will suggest building high, which will infuriate two groups of local residents.

One does not want anything to be built on the site at all, preferring the current state of semi-dereliction, while the other thinks the development will be too dense.

Black Rock in Kemp Town has been disused since the art deco swimming pool started crumbling away to the point of closure in 1978.

As with all major sites in Brighton and Hove, successive schemes have come and gone and, at present, three consortia have put forward their ideas for leisure there.

Woe betide any developer thinking of peeking a turret or tower above the top of the cliffs as this will incur the wrath of the Kemp Town residents, whose conservation-based rage helped see off two proposals in the past.

Finally there is the West Pier, partially derelict since 1970 and totally shut since 1975.

Planning permission has already been given for restoring the pier and National Lottery money is waiting in the wings.

To make it viable, two large shoreline buildings are needed and the conservation group Save Our Seafront is opposing them strongly.

An application by developers St Modwen, backed by the Brighton West Pier Trust, has been before the city council for the best part of a year. It will be decided in the next month or two.

Councillors have to work out if the development is a price worth paying for the restoration of Britain's only Grade I listed pier.

Approve it and they risk enraging noisy neighbours and concerned conservationists. Leave it and the pier will not rest in peace but rust in pieces.

Those in favour of the new schemes claim they will breathe fresh air into the city and keep the economy booming. Those against say developers are trying to cram too much on the sites.

It will be a fascinating fight, which will set the scene for other major developments in future years.