NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING & DESIGN ISSUES www.leeds.gov.uk
Work in progress. Prepared for discussion with Neighbourhood Planning groups in Leeds.
NATIONAL POLICY National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) Section 7 ‘Requiring good design’, paragraphs 56-68 and particularly para. 56 below: ‘The Government attaches great importance to the design of the built environment. Good design is a key aspect of sustainable development, is indivisible from good planning, and should contribute positively to making places better for people’. Also of relevance is paragraph17 ‘Core planning principles’ which notes: ‘always seek to secure high quality design and a good standard of amenity for all existing and future occupants of land and building’.
LEEDS CITY COUNCIL’S CORE STRATEGY
DESIGN DESIGN Policy P10: underpins the national guidance, in applying these overall principles to the local Leeds context.
GUIDANCE Policy P10 sets out the plan’s overarching expectations for design quality and provides a basis to ‘sign post’ to supporting design guidance, produced by the Council to illustrate what this means in practice. • Neighbourhoods for Living • Sustainable Design and Construction, ‘Building for Tomorrow Today’ • Village and Neighbourhood Design Statements (20 have been adopted) • The Ten Urban Design Principles • Leeds Waterfront Strategy
CONSERVATION CONSERVATION Policy P11: conserving and enhancing the historic environment, particularly those elements which help to give Leeds its distinct identity.
PRESERVATION & ENHANCEMENT • Listed Buildings • 76 Conservation Areas • 53 Conservation Area Appraisals and Management Plans • Register of Historic Parks & Gardens • Register of Battlefields (Adwalton Moor) • Buildings at Risk • Heritage Regeneration Programme
LANDSCAPE LANDSCAPE Policy P12: the character, quality and biodiversity will be conserved and enhanced to protect their distinctiveness.
PROTECTION & ENHANCEMENT The hierarchy of Designated Nature Conservation Sites (Policies G8) • SSSI Site of Special Scientific Interest • SEGI Site of Ecological or Geological Importance • LNR Local Nature Reserve • LNA Leeds Nature Area • Leeds Habitat Networks (Policy G9) • Tree Preservation Orders • Trees in Conservation Areas
Neighbourhood Plans (NP) in Leeds will add another layer of more localised design guidance, providing added detail on local distinctiveness and the specific character of NP areas.
www.leeds.gov.uk
WHAT CAN GOOD DESIGN DO FOR YOUR COMMUNITY?
WHAT TO CONSIDER IN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN…
Children and Young People
Community Buildings
Health
Housing
• Consider both the positive and negative urban design aspects of your area and how negatives can be made into positives • Look at safe walking and cycling routes to schools and local facilities • Consider natural surveillance to provide safe and accessible leisure facilities and green spaces • Involve children and young people early on in the design process • All new facilities should incorporate sustain-able design principles to encourage children to learn about energy saving
• Community buildings should be welcoming, accessible and safe for all • Work with professionals to design out plan-ning defects • Ensure that you seek the best design ad-vice possible when adapting community buildings to make them fit for the future • Well-designed and sustainable new com-munity buildings that the community can be proud of and will provide a focal point for the neighbourhood • Retaining historic buildings as valuable community resources
• Improving local healthcare services and promoting healthy living • Good urban design ensures that neighbourhood facilities are linked to sustainable transport routes and accessible to those with poor mobility • Emphasis on the high quality design of all greenspaces and public realm to encourage regular physical activity and communal meeting places • Remember facilities need to be appropriate and fit for purpose • Ensure contact with nature by creating areas for wildlife and wildflower meadows
• Good design is key to Place Making so make this the primary consideration to create quality places that people can enjoy living and relaxing in • Making sure new housing has sufficient local infrastructure and relates to its “context” and “sense of place” makes for an integrated design • Ensure there is a tenure mix and a good mix of housing types that reflects the needs of the community, to encourage a sustainable neighbourhood • Refer to LCC’s ‘Neighbourhoods For Living’ www.leeds.gov.uk/ldf
Local Food
Leisure
Shops and Services
• Consider possible sites for allotments and community food growing projects and designing these into new development pro-posals wherever possible • The recently launched ‘FEED LEEDS’ community food growing iniative encourages locally-sourced food and growing your own. www.feedleeds.org • The ‘Back-to-Front garden project has help-ful suggestions for growing food in front gardens and small spaces www.backtofront.org.uk
• Include informal greenspaces and natural assets, as well as seeking to retain existing, valued, local leisure facilities • Improve the quantity and quality of these spaces and facilities • Increase and improve safe walking and cycling routes • Accessibility must be a fundamental design consideration so ensure that disabled and elderly people are fully considered in leisure facility improvement plans • Well-designed spaces and places provide a framework within which communities can relax and thrive
• Support shops that encourage healthy living and a sense of community • Keeping local shops and services accessible and affordable • Locate services in areas of good public transport/ cycling/walking links • Combine uses to create a sustainable district centre with a mix of services • Include appropriate community facilities that help meet the needs of the neighbourhood such as crèches, day-care centres and health services as well as sociable meeting places
Renewable Energy
Road Safety
Transport
• Consider sustainable design and construction in all new and existing developments (refer to LCC’s ‘Building for Tomorrow Today’ www.leeds.gov.uk/ldf) • Consider district heating schemes and other community renewable schemes to generate an income for the community and provide affordable renewable energy • Be aware of the guidance available to encourage your community to live energy efficiently www.energysavingtrust.org.uk • Use qualified design professionals to develop your ideas and concepts to address the needs of the community
• Road safety, health and urban design go hand in hand • Reducing traffic and making streets safer for all road users • Consider pedestrian and cycle friendly streets to increase community cohesion and interaction and encourage people to spend time in their locality • Encourage walking and cycling and safer routes to school for children, for a healthier lifestyle • Sustrans can assist in enabling people to travel by foot, bike or public transport for more of the journeys we make every day
Useful information to ensure a well designed neighbourhood
Local Environment and Spaces • Provision of well-designed and accessible urban spaces, public parks and greenspaces that are over-looked and safe • Investing in the local historic environment to ensure the well-being of the wider community, including both wildlife habitats and landscaping • Look at utilising green space for community food growing www.feedleeds.org • Active transport routes to ensure focus on walking and cycling and reduce car use. See www.walkit.com for ideas on routes in your local area
• Ensure that highways do not dominate • A properly designed highway improves legibility and connectivity which can lead to greater community cohesion • Reduce traffic congestion and improve transport networks and facilities • Ensure green and safe pedestrian links to public transport • Consider the creation of pedestrian-friendly streets and ‘Homezones’. See ‘The Methleys’ Homezone in Chapel Allerton for inspiration • Sustrans encourage improved places and spaces to move through and live in
CREATING HEALTHY, WELL DESIGNED NEIGHBOURHOODS BY FINDING CREATIVE SOLUTIONS TO PLACE‐MAKING
“Design has a crucial role to play in creating places that not only feel safe, but are safe. Public spaces and pedestrian routes should be overlooked to increase surveillance.” Building for Life www.buildingforlife.org Who knows an area best? Obviously it is the people who live, work and spend their lives there http://www.placecheck.info/
www.leeds.gov.uk
’The art of making places. Urban design involves the design of buildings, groups of buildings, spaces and landscape in villages, towns and cities, and the establishment of frameworks and processes which facilitate successful development.’ Urban Design definition ‘By Design’, DCLG/Design Council CABE
THE ART OF MAKING PLACES
www.leeds.gov.uk
EXTRACTS FROM NEIGHBOURHOODS FOR LIVING
www.leeds.gov.uk
Aspirations
There is a broad range of aspirations for residential design
Walkable neighbourhoods
Communal space
Place for car Local shops nearby
Sun into house/ garden
Attractive buildings
Bin lorry, delivery & fire appliance access
Opportunities for work nearby
Quality of Life in Residential Areas
Public spaces usable/enjoyable Natural surveillance against crime
Trees, grassy spaces and landscape Lifetime homes Safe and attractive for cycling
Close to good public transport
Sense of community
Access for all
Place to play
QUALITY OF LIFE ISSUES
Private open space These aspirations are reflected in Leeds City Council’s Neighbourhoods for Living guide.
www.leeds.gov.uk
Neighbourhoods for Living themes, key objectives and potential health benefits SPACE
Neighbourhoods for Living has four key themes, each of which relates to the work of one of the built environment disciplines: • USE – town planners • MOVEMENT – highways engineers • SPACE – landscape architects • FORM – architects. If you look at the diagram below you’ll see that each of these themes is broken down into key objectives and a series of design principles for residential development.
Key objectives
• creating neighbourhoods – to create neighbourhoods that respect the local context, offer a choice of housing and provide good access to complementary local facilities within walking distance. • density and mixed uses – to create vitality, with increased development densities supporting a range of services, mixed uses and public transport.
• making attractive spaces that work – to create people-friendly places that allow for necessary vehicular access. • safer places – to create safe and secure places with effective natural surveillance. • private spaces – to provide well-designed private and semi-private open space for all dwellings, appropriate to the design character of the area. • publicly accessible spaces – to provide a varied network of attractive, usable and safe publicly accessible spaces as part of a hierarchy of places. • designing for parking – to provide appropriate parking at discreet but safe locations within the development. • wildlife – to retain existing important species and habitats and maximise opportunities for habitat enhancement, creation and management.
Potential health benefits
Potential health benefits
• Providing access to health services, community facilities, and retail and employment locations. • Increasing access to healthy food. • Strengthening social cohesion and community resilience. • Encouraging physical activity and active travel.
• Ensuring access to high-quality public and private spaces and natural habitats. • Improving community safety. • Increasing access to healthy food. • Strengthening social cohesion and community resilience. • Minimising the impact of climate change and ensuring low levels of air and water pollution and noise.
US E Key objectives
The majority of these principles carry potential benefits for the health and wellbeing of Leeds residents. This could be through creating focal points to promote a sense of community, providing people with the space to grow their own food, or creating wildlife corridors to enhance the natural environment and so support good mental health and help mitigate the effects of climate change.
F O RM
M O VEM ENT Key objectives • making connections – to create connected layouts that provide choice and improve access to facilities and public transport. • developing the movement network – to develop a framework of connected spaces that respect all users by offering a safe, attractive environment for all.
Potential health benefits • Encouraging physical activity and active travel. • Strengthening social cohesion and community resilience.
Key objectives • local character – to ensure that proposals respect the local character by enhancing the positive attributes whilst mitigating negative aspects. • scale and massing – to provide built forms that contribute positively to the townscape whilst respecting the scale of adjacent spaces. • landmarks, views and focal points – to take every opportunity to create good design that respects key views, landmarks and focal points. • quality buildings – to create high-quality building design with appropriately designed elements. • homes for the future – to develop wherever possible on brownfield sites with efficient energy use, minimising waste production and pollution. • privacy and intrusion – to safeguard privacy and amenity.
Potential health benefits • Healthy design and lifetime homes. • Strengthening social cohesion and community resilience.
EXTRACTS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH ANNUAL REPORT 2014-15
www.leeds.gov.uk
Healthy planning and urban design
Extracts from the DPH Annual Report
Foreword Welcome to my latest Public Health Annual Report The focus of my report this year is on the future. On 12th November 2014 Leeds City Council adopted its Core Strategy. This is an extremely important event as Leeds City Council has now set out how the city will develop over the next decade or so up to the year 2028. Included within the Core Strategy is an additional housing requirement of 70,000 new homes to be built between 2012 and 2028. By any stretch of the imagination this is a large increase. Currently there are around 345,000 properties in Leeds, so this represents a 20% increase. There will be a 150,000 increase in the population from the current 750,000. So the face of Leeds will change forever. I want to make sure that these additional 70,000 homes are developed in ways that improve health and wellbeing – and not make health inequalities worse. To achieve this, I want to connect the public health benefits of good urban design and planning to people, place and the planning process. Furthermore, I want to help make sure that individuals, families and local communities have their voice heard, and influence felt, in the planning process, alongside the voices of the developers and officials – so that these public health benefits come to pass.
I hope you find my report of interest. As in previous years I would welcome your feedback, comments and suggestions.
Dr Ian Cameron
People
Place Ensuring the public health benefits of an additional 70,000 homes by 2028
Planning process
Developing strong, healthy and vibrant communities is crucial to ensuring the wellbeing of people in Leeds. The new homes that will be built in Leeds over the next few years – whether through new development or ‘retrofit’ of existing properties – must be healthy homes in healthy communities. So how can we make this happen? It’s now widely recognised that the nature of the built environment impacts on people’s health.3 A well-designed ‘healthy development’ can improve people’s health in a number of ways:
Minimising the impact of climate change and ensuring low levels of air and water pollution and noise. Healthy design and lifetime homes.
Ensuring access to high-quality public and private spaces and natural habitats. Strengthening social cohesion and community resilience.
Under the 2012 Health and Social Care Act, public health is now the responsibility of the local authority. The council’s role is to join local health policy up with other strategies such as housing, transport and planning. This presents a great opportunity for public health professionals, urban designers, spatial planners – and communities themselves – to work together to promote better health and reduce health inequalities. Residents, developers, planners, politicians, community groups, and others, have a broad range of aspirations for residential development.
Providing access to health services, community facilities, and retail and employment locations.
Increasing access to healthy food.
EXTRACTS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH ANNUAL REPORT 2014-15
Encouraging physical activity and active travel.
Improving community safety.
www.leeds.gov.uk
CASE STUDY
CASE STUDY
LILAC LILAC is a development of 20 straw bale homes on the site of a former school in Bramley.
G e ne ra l p la n of si te
LILAC means ‘Low Impact Living Affordable Community’ and is founded upon sustainability, mutual ownership and community living: • ‘Low Impact Living’ features include the construction of homes at Lilac Grove from natural materials (straw, timber and lime), reducing greenhouse gas emissions and conserving energy. Residents reduce their impact by sharing washing machines, lawnmowers, tools and cars. Cycling is promoted and each household has an allotment. • ‘Affordability’ is reflected in the MHOS (Mutual Home Ownership Society). Members contribute about a third of their monthly income to help pay the mortgage and build up shares in the Society, which they sell back when they leave.
Yarn Street
- putting Neighbourhoods for Living into practice The Yarn Street development in the Hunslet Riverside Area demonstrates how many of the principles of Neighbourhoods for Living can be put into practice to create a healthy community that integrates well with its environment and with existing communities. Yarn street is located in the South Bank area of the city. The Grade II listed Hunslet Mills, built between 1838 and 1842 by engineer William Fairbairn (creator of Armley Mills and Salt’s Mill), was saved from demolition in the 1980s and now provides both a focal point for the new development and a source of architectural inspiration. This key building from Hunslet’s cultural and historical past has largely dictated the scale, architectural forms and materials of the Yarn Street development. The simple red brick with slate grey cladding and cream render, says ‘This is Leeds’. In terms of the outdoor environment, the limited space available uses a mix of green spaces, verge planting and child-friendly spaces.
Because of its environmental features, bills at Lilac Grove are also much cheaper. • ‘Community’ is achieved through the cohousing project where residents have their own private home but share facilities like the common house, gardens and workshop. The common house is the site of regular community events and meetings, with a shared laundry, kitchen, dining room, post room, office and multi-function room. The main purpose of LILAC is to provide a new model for housing based on sustainability, low-impact community living, equality, social justice and self-management. Members are driven by concerns over the need to respond to climate change and energy scarcity, the limits of the
H un sl e t M ill s
L a yo ut - e p T P M L a nd sctoas ho 3Ds & p ts P R A A rc hi te c
Residents and visitors can enjoy the natural habitat of the River Aire, which is very still in this part of the city, and see rabbits, otters and kingfishers within a short distance of the new development. The challenge will be to maintain this natural habitat in subsequent developments. The plans for development embed Secured by Design principles. Rear gardens abut neighbouring gardens and large or gable windows provide active frontages to the public spaces, green spaces and river frontage, creating important natural surveillance. Car-taming initiatives such as changes in surface materials, narrow road widths and subtle segregation of pedestrian space from vehicle space, keep speeds low and give the pedestrian a stronger sense of ‘ownership’ over the spaces than in a more conventional highway layout.
EXTRACTS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH ANNUAL REPORT 2014-15
www.leeds.gov.uk
Holbeck Neighbourhood Plan
Jenny Watson
CASE STUDY
Leeds has one of the highest levels of NP activity of any city across the country. So far, we’ve designated 22 Neighbourhood Areas (this is the area covered by the NP) and another 20 areas have expressed an interest. Both ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ areas are well represented and communities are active across the district as a whole. The council is promoting pilots in Otley, Beeston & Holbeck, Kippax and Boston Spa. Usually, the town or parish council provides a focus for preparing the NP. Occasionally, in non-parished areas like Holbeck, the city council, in discussion with the local community, will designate a Neighbourhood Forum, made up of a minimum of 21 people who live, work or do business in the area, to lead the work. You can contact the group for your area, if there is one, directly or via Leeds City Council. There’s a list of useful links at the end of this section.
‘Having lived and worked in the market town of Otley for over 30 years, I have come to value its rich and varied history, its remarkable community spirit and its delightful semi-rural environment. It is my view that all of these come together to enhance the physical and mental wellbeing of Otley’s residents. In recent years, Otley has seen a significant amount of windfall housing and there are proposals for several largescale developments which clearly have the potential to substantially affect the dynamics of the community. So, when the opportunity arose to be involved in developing the town’s Neighbourhood Plan, I volunteered in the hope that features of the town that I, and many others, value might be conserved or even enhanced. It is my hope that the Neighbourhood Plan will be instrumental in developing communities that provide for a healthy and rewarding lifestyle for all. For example, ensuring that any further new housing meets the various needs of the existing community, is built to high sustainability criteria and also takes fully into account the infrastructure limitations of an essentially medieval town; that children have quality places to engage in active outdoor play near to their homes; that teenagers and adults can access a wide range of recreational facilities; and that there are havens of tranquillity throughout the town where people can escape the stresses and strains of life and enjoy the natural world.’
Holbeck is an inner city area of Leeds, just south of the city centre. Holbeck has a lot going for it. Its industrial heritage is reflected in some wonderful listed buildings. It has an identifiable centre and an engaged, multicultural community, but its community identity has got rather lost in recent years despite a number of previous regeneration initiatives. The Neighbourhood Plan is an attempt to reinvigorate the area and reconnect with its history. The council approached local community groups to promote the idea of producing a Neighbourhood Plan. This led to a successful bid to the Department for Communities and Local Government for Holbeck to become a Neighbourhood Planning pilot area, securing in the process £20,000 funding to assist with preparing the plan. To get the process started, the council and local community leaders organised a drop-in event at St Matthews Church. This included an interactive exhibition explaining what neighbourhood planning is and how it could benefit Holbeck. Local people
got the chance to say what they like and dislike about the neighbourhood. The event also included a ‘History of Holbeck’. A popular aspect of the event was a set of 50 captioned A3 photos showing some of the opportunities and challenges in Holbeck, with space for local people to add comments and ideas. Local volunteers then did a series of walkabouts, camera in hand. All the feedback from the public engagement was reported to a public meeting four weeks later (the interim Neighbourhood Forum). Intensive early support from the council was critical to success during the first year but as time went by the council was able to take a step back and allow the community to take more control. This was ultimately achieved when the interim forum applied to the council for Neighbourhood Area designation and appointment of a Neighbourhood Forum to prepare the plan.
EXTRACTS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH ANNUAL REPORT 2014-15 10 10
www.leeds.gov.uk
LEEDS CITY COUNCIL Management Areas
Wetherby
Thorp Arch
Linton Collingham
Otley Pool
Boston Spa
Harewood
East Keswick
Bramhope
Bardsey
Bramham
Guiseley
Outer North East Outer North West
Scarcroft Thorner
Adel
Rawdon
Shadwell
Moortown Horsforth West Park
Chapel Allerton Roundhay Inner North East
Meanwood Weetwood
Chapeltown
Inner North West
Rodley Farsley
Bramley
Barwick-in-Elmet Aberford
Seacroft
Headingley Kirkstall
Hyde Park Inner East
Inner West
Micklefield
Armley Pudsey
Colton
Richmond Hill
Garforth
Cross Green
Outer West
Hunslet Beeston
Little Preston
Kippax
Inner South
Belle Isle Drighlington Middleton
Ledsham
Woodlesford Rothwell
Outer East
Morley
West North West
Methley
East North East
Outer South
South East N
Crown Copyright and database rights 2 01 5 Ordnance Survey 1 00 19 56 7 PRODUCED BY CI TY DEVELOPMENT, GI S MAPPI NG & DATA TEAM, LEEDS CI TY COUNCI L Path: L: \ CGM\ GI S Projects\ SDU\ Jenny Fisher Management Areas\ Jenny Fisher Managem ent Areas.m xd
Produced by: NI
Date: 27/ 11/ 2015
HOUSING CHARACTER IN LEEDS, ILLUSTRATED IN THE FOLLOWING PAGES FOR EACH LEEDS CITY COUNCIL MANAGEMENT AREA
www.leeds.gov.uk
HOUSING CHARACTER - Outer East Streetscene
Scale & massing
Roof Form
Elevations
Boundaries
Parking
Details
Materials
Landscape
Colton
Garforth
Kippax
Ledsham
Little Preston Methley Micklefield
Rothwell
PRESERVING AND ENHANCING THE CHARACTER OF YOUR AREA
www.leeds.gov.uk
HOUSING CHARACTER - Outer North West Streetscene
Scale & massing
Roof Form
Elevations
Boundaries
Parking
Details
Materials
Landscape
Adel
Bramhope
Guiseley
Horsforth
Otley Pool in wharfedale
Rawdon
We treasure the richness of the housing in our district and we want you to be inspired by what has gone before, as you are going to leave a similar legacy
www.leeds.gov.uk
Where are these?
Answer: Boston Spa!!
Hopefully these pages have inspired you to consider design issues, but where do you start?
Should our Neighbourhood Plan consider design policies?
Which design issues should be included?
What are the priorities revelant to our area?
If you would like specific design advice, please contact us via the website: http://www.leeds.gov.uk/council/Pages/Neighbourhood-planning.aspx
AN IMPORTANT PLACE TO START IS PRESERVE LOCAL DISTINCTIVENESS
www.leeds.gov.uk
Detail
Strategic
9. Elevations (ground floor treatment)
10. Local Traditions
1. Context & Character
making people-friendly streets
built forms and materials
rears facing main streets, garage dominance, “ill considered car parking in front of houses”, no evidence of discreet bin storage, some poor proportions of windows & absence of vertical elements such as chimneys...
poor detail on homes, inappropriate groupings (see 7), no chimneys (see 9), no response to context, no respect for urban grain/form, little/no relationship with conservation area...
getting the right approach no analysis study, no concept diagram, unresponsive to local character & adjacent conservation area, poor response at access points to site (e.g. garage/rear boundary face entrance)...
8. Privacy & Security
2. Connections Lines indicate examples of each issue (not all shown)
optimise natural surveillance
access to & within the site
no overlooking of public open space, back gardens to open space provides poor aspect, gardens need to be rear/secure, no overlooking of car parks...
Culs-de-sac too large, poor connection to bus stop, poor junction design, unconnected layout, unclear hierarchy [pedestrian, cycle, vehicle]...
7. House Types/Grouping
3. Finding Your Way
creating the character
vehicles, cyclists & pedestrians
arbitrary variety (of semis & terraces) not relating to existing character & no clear character areas within site, poor natural surveillance, garage dominance (see 9), homes too close together (vehicle dominant frontage)...
poor legibility in the layout, few navigation points, concerns about safety for circulation, opportunities not taken to provide positive views & visual connection...
6. Parking
5. Landscape
4. Enclosure & Built Edges
on-street & in-curtilage
existing & proposed
site edges & new streets
no overlooking, ‘like a car park with houses’, garage dominance (see 9), in curtilage still dominates streetscene, poor layout - semis too close to provide side parking...
loss of existing high quality trees, no coherent usable public open space, garden size/plot depth, limited planting/landscaping, no play areas, fragmented public space...
‘crowded layout’, too dense, too many ‘hard edges’, rear gardens facing a main street provides poor aspect, ill-conceived streets within scheme, no coordinating rationale to streets or edges...
SITE ANALYSIS
www.leeds.gov.uk
Detail 9. Elevations (ground floor treatment)
10. Local Traditions
making people-friendly streets
built forms and materials
frontages to street, well proportioned elevations & form, good/consistent window proportions, detail & vertical elements such as chimneys, parking sensitive to character...
well detailed homes responsive to existing local character, including roof forms, windows/door detailing (e.g. heads/cills), materials, not precluding excellent contemporary architecture...
Strategic Context&&Character Character 1. 1. Context
getting the right approach concept diagram based on thorough analysis, getting the right approach
responsive to based existing form/streets concept diagram onurban thorough analysis, (inc. conservation form within responsive to existing area), urban urban form/streets (inc. site relates to individual character areas conservation area), urban form within site relates where appropriate... to individual character areas where appropriate...
Key
8. Privacy & Security
2. Connections
optimise natural surveillance
access to & within the site
enclosed boundaries (clear public-private thresholds), natural surveillance of the streets (sense of security), overlooked parking, overlooked green spaces, secure by design...
well placed access points to site with interconnected layout, wider connection to local facilities, good pedestrian connection to public transport...
7. House Types/Grouping
3. Finding Your Way
creating the character
vehicles, cyclists & pedestrians
types responsive to individual character areas & local character creating strong sense of place, house frontages to create strong street edges where appropriate, minimise dominance of parking to frontage...
clear routes for pedestrians, cycles, vehicles, connected green spaces, take opportunities for enhanced navigation points using built form & landscape...
6. Parking
5. Landscape
4. Enclosure & Built Edges
on-street & in-curtilage
existing & proposed
site edges & new streets
mixture of suitable parking to meet needs, not detrimental to street character, in curtilage to side of houses for detached and semis (unobtrusive in streetscene)...
connected green spaces (including green spine), existing quality green features retained, softer edge to green belt, clear hierachy of public to private spaces, inc. street trees...
appropriate variety of enclosure responding to defined character areas & street form, e.g. Area C will be tighter grained that Area A, frontages to face main streets (avoiding exposed rear gardens)...
SITE CONCEPT
www.leeds.gov.uk