Strategic land promoter and developer Lansdown is running a community engagement event with Imagine Places to help shape the vision for its up-to-30-plot site in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, prior to applying for outline planning permission.
The 6.7ha Cross Lane Fields scheme sits on a visually contained piece of Green Belt on the edge of the tow that will bring much needed owner-commissioned homes to the area.
As it stands, the model will allow self builders to design their homes, with design codes setting the parameters for the site. The homes include a mix of sizes, and will either be self built or self-commissioned to Passivhaus Standards, creating homes that will be exemplars in energy standards, design and sustainability.
Lansdown also hopes that Cross Fields Lane will include 40% affordable homes with a discount of 30% on the land at point of purchase.
To canvas the local appetite for self build, Lansdown is running a survey to assess would-be builders’ expectations and their level of understanding. This is a strategy that works well as both a piece of marketing and also as a piece of secondary evidence of demand to support their planning application, to supplement the local self build register data. The custom and self build guidance points out the role of secondary sources of demand, here.
Senior Planner at Lansdown Ethan Davies said, “Our aim is to deliver an exemplar scheme and to raise the bar of what a self-build development can achieve by bringing both place-making and sustainable construction to the forefront.”
Check out Lansdowns Cross Lane Fields survey
Image credit: ImaginePlaces
