AGENDA ITEM: 8 Page nos

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1 AGENDA ITEM: 8 Page nos Meeting Date 1 st December 2004 Subject Report of Summary Regeneration and Development Scrutiny Committee Design Codes - Background Material Scrutiny Officer One of the four strategic areas that this committee is looking at as part of its 2004/05 work programme is the design of new buildings and sustainable design. This report informs members about an interesting initiative being promoted by the government in this area: design codes. Officer Contributors Status (public or exempt) Wards Affected None Public All Enclosures Enclosure RTPI Planning Summer School, Design Coding of Seaside What Lessons for the UK Planning System? (2003) [18 pages numbered separately] For Decision By Function Of The Committee Executive Contact for Further Information: Eshan Karunatilleka, Scrutiny Team Corporate Performance Office RECOMMENDATIONS 1.1 That the report and enclosure be noted by members of the committee. 2. RELEVANT PREVIOUS DECISIONS 2.1 At its meeting on 27 th July 2004, the Regeneration Scrutiny Committee approved its forward work programme for the 2004/05 municipal year, which included an item scrutinising the standards of design in Barnet and sustainable design issues. 3. CORPORATE PRIORITIES AND POLICY CONSIDERATIONS 3.1 Chapter 4, Paragraph of the council s deposit draft UDP (2001), on the built environment,

2 states that The design, layout and appearance of the built environment can affect the quality of people s lives, as well as have an impact on the image and economy of an area. Barnet has an attractive and high quality environment containing some areas of special character and significant tracts of open land. It is a place where people want to live. This in turn places the borough under strong pressure for development. To enable people to continue living in attractive and safe surroundings and ensure a similar standard for future generations, the quality of the built environment should be protected and enhanced. 4. RISK MANAGEMENT ISSUES 4.1 None. 5. FINANCIAL, STAFFING, ICT AND PROPERTY IMPLICATIONS 5.1 None. 6. LEGAL ISSUES 6.1 None. 7. CONSTITUTIONAL POWERS 7.1 The roles and terms of reference of all scrutiny committees are contained within Part 2, Article 6 of the constitution; and in the Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules (Part 4 of the constitution). 8. BACKGROUND INFORMATION 8.1 This committee has heard previously that the importance of good design in the planning system is accepted by everyone as self-evident. As part of its agenda to promote good design, the government has been experimenting with design codes (or urban coding). Used in parts of the United States, Australia and Europe, this is a methodology whereby land owners establish the key design aspects of new developments up front in a so-called design code and, through legal clauses, then impose compliance by developers wishing to build in the area covered by the design code. As CABE has observed, design codes are not a new invention per se, but there has been renewed interest in them in the last decade; in the United Kingdom, the best known recent example was the Prince of Wales s development at Poundbury, which was developed according to a highly prescriptive, very detailed design code based on the principles of traditional urbanism. 8.2 A design code could be thought of as one element of a hierarchy of area-specific documents that govern development: most councillors would understand the idea of a development framework or master plan for a large area, below which would be a planning brief, and below which would come the design code. CABE has noted that: The concept of an urban design code starts from the proposition that the design of a new development can be planned and regulated to achieve a higher quality outcome. It introduces an increased level of design control in an attempt to exert greater assurance over the quality of the product. Most, although not all codes, are based on the further premise that there are certain rules or principles that apply to the process of making or re-making places that can be applied and interpreted for a given location and then captured in written and plan form [italics added] The key points about design codes are that they are highly detailed, highly prescriptive and legally enforceable. 1 CABE, The Use of Urban Design Codes,

3 8.4 Earlier this year, the ODPM initiated a project to pilot the wider use of design codes in the United Kingdom. This project followed a visit by the Deputy Prime Minister to the town of Seaside in Florida, which is one of the most famous examples of the use of design codes. Seaside is a new town planned and built since the 1980s, which was created as part of a planning movement called the new urbanism (which was in fact a return to traditional urbanism ). Seaside was built according to a highly prescriptive design code, which stressed a traditional American, seaside, clapboard-style and range of materials. Seaside has also become famous as the location of the film The Truman Show. John Prescott has said that the use of master planning and urban coding in Seaside has a lot to offer here in Britain Instead of spending money on lawyers and planning inquiries, developers can spend it on planning and design - and everyone benefits. 2 Enclosed with this report is a presentation about Seaside from the RTPI (reproduced from the papers of its 2003 Planning Summer School). 8.5 The ODPM initiative will provide financial support for the drawing up of strict architectural design/stylistic rules in design codes covering new developments in each of the seven pilot areas. The pilots will focus mainly on new housing schemes, but some mixed developments have been included. The areas taking part in the initiative are: Cirencester; Rotherham; Newcastle; Aldershot; Hastings; and Ashford in Kent. 8.6 It is hoped that having design codes will not only improve the quality of the new homes built in the pilot areas, but also speed up the rate at which they are given planning permission and hence the speed of their being built. This is because there has been a view (widely expressed in recent analyses of low house building levels and particularly in the Barker Review), that the low level of new house building starts has in part been due to the slowness of the planning system. The supervision of the pilots is being undertaken by CABE, which has appointed consultants to advise the pilot councils, help with the scheme as a whole and offer training/capacity building to the councils and the developers as they draw up their design codes While this central government initiative is less than a year old, there would be nothing to prevent local authorities adopting design codes as supplementary planning guidances (SPGs) at the current time, provided that their codes were in line with national and regional planning guidance, and were consistent with the policies set out in their UDPs/local plans. However, if any local authorities wanted to use design codes, in practice the best chance of implementing them would probably be on major public sector-led regeneration schemes, where local authorities were the main landowners and could therefore impose design codes. 8.8 Any members wanting further information or more detail about this subject should contact the Scrutiny Team. 9. LIST OF BACKGROUND PAPERS 9.1 None. BS: BT: RB 2 ODPM Press Release, 20 th November Members interested in finding out more about the seven pilot English schemes should visit the Guardian website at 18

4 DESIGN CODING OF SEASIDE: WHAT LESSONS FOR THE UK PLANNING SYSTEM? 1

5 DESIGN CODING: QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER: How prescriptive should a code be? What should be covered by a code? Could codes result in higher quality more efficient development? How do codes relate to land ownership? How might codes work as part of our planning system? (CABE 2004) 2

6 SO WHAT ARE DESIGN CODES? Design Codes are principles or rules in written or plan form, that provide a way of regulating and controlling development. The goal of design coding is that development will be of a higher and more consistent quality. Design Coding can regulate such aspects of the built environment as massing, layout, public space, density, building heights, landscape, mix of use and movement. 3

7 SEASIDE & THE NEW URBANISM: Rejects contemporary US land use patterns and zoning. Wants to see a halt to urban sprawl. Against the privatisation of public space. Is a revival of the classical town planning tradition. 4

8 SEASIDE: A RETURN TO TOWN PLANNING PRINCIPLES THROUGH DESIGN CODING. 80 acres of greenfield land master-planned in 1981 by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk & Leon Krier. Master-plan based on rigorous Architectural and Urban Codes. 5

9 THE SEASIDE URBAN CODE. THE URBAN CODE REGULATES: Building types Parking spaces Lot size Building height Street hierarchy 6

10 THE SEASIDE ARCHITECTURAL CODE. THE ARCHITECTURAL CODE REGULATES: Roofline Type of fence Types of window Building materials Landscaping 7

11 THE DESIGN CODES CREATE: Street intimacy Pedestrian scale A safer environment A greener environment 8

12 DESIGN CODES ENSURE PEDESTRIANS ARE AS IMPORTANT AS THE CAR. Streets are able to both accommodate the car and act as public thoroughfares. 9

13 CIVIC AND PUBLIC STRUCTURES: Are opportunities for design creativity Reinvigorate the public realm Promote town and civic identity 10

14 The design codes accommodate different styles of architecture ranging from the vernacular 11

15 to the modern. 12

16 THE SEASIDE SKYLINE The code allows additional building height if the extra floor is a tower this gives seaside a distinctive skyline. 13

17 HOW PRESCRIPTIVE SHOULD A CODE BE? WHAT SHOULD BE COVERED BY A CODE? Codes have to find a balance between rigour and flexibility. Codes should be under periodical review Seaside s Architectural Review Board undertakes this. Codes work best when promoting coherence and not conformity. 14

18 COULD CODES RESULT IN HIGHER QUALITY AND MORE EFFICIENT DEVELOPMENT? Design coding allows more attention to be paid to materials and construction techniques. Quality can only increase. Coding could shorten the time of planning applications if they are judged to accord with the coding policy. Once established codes can provide a consistent and efficient framework for development. 15

19 HOW DO CODES RELATE TO LAND OWNERSHIP? Codes appear to work best when land is under single ownership or on new sites. Coding in inner-city areas with existing infrastructure could be more complex. Street associations and covenants are important to maintenance and protection of public space. 16

20 HOW MIGHT CODES WORK AS PART OF OUR PLANNING SYSTEM? Design codes as supplementary planning guidance? Placed within PPGs? Attention is focussed on the Design Coding Pilot Programme these projects will influence future policy. 17

21 CONCLUSION. Design codes: Are popular. Ensure quality development. Can be flexible. Create a sense of place. Can promote sustainability. Are are probably here to stay. 18