Great places

7.1.  In the great places theme, we set out policies to deliver high quality and well-designed places.

Our strategic priority for our great places policies

7.2.  Strategic Priority: Sustain the unique character and identities of Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire, and complement it with well-designed and distinctive development, creating a place where people want to live, work, visit and play.

7.3.  Greater Cambridge has beautiful architecture, public realm and heritage assets ranging from the historical colleges of Cambridge through to village conservation areas, and valued landscapes.

7.4.  Maintaining and creating great places is crucial to sustaining the quality of the area for people who live, work, study in, and visit Greater Cambridge. Great places are valued and distinctive, accessible to all people, and well-integrated with nature. Valuing place through policies in this Local Plan ensures that quality of life can be improved alongside enhancing the global excellence of the knowledge economy and whilst preserving the area’s heritage assets.

7.5.  Our new developments need to protect what is special and deliver high quality and well-designed buildings and spaces that combine to form great places. We continue to use the Cambridgeshire Quality Charter for Growth to provide a clear and consistent basis for securing quality new developments. Themes covering the four ‘C’s’ of Community, Connectivity, Climate and Character have been used to provide an understanding of what needs to be considered when creating and assessing high-quality design, contributing to good placemaking.

7.6.  Given the strong track record of delivering high-quality design in the Greater Cambridge area, evidenced through award winning schemes and overall growth delivery, the themes from the Quality Charter have been used to structure policies in the great places chapter.

What our great places policies do

• Set design principles around the Cambridgeshire Quality Charter for Growth.
• Provide quality guidelines that development must meet to deliver good design.
• Ensure that land is used effectively in delivering appropriate housing density.
• Establish how proposals for taller buildings and their impact on the skyline will be considered.
• Require developments to deliver high-quality landscape and public realm.
• Protect and enhance landscape character.
• Provide a strategy for the historic environment and approach to considering impacts on designated and non-designated heritage assets.
• Ensure that development protects and enhances the significance of archaeological sites.
• Support the adaptation of heritage buildings to climate change.
• Outline requirements for new and existing shopfronts and signage.