York is one of the richest, complex townscapes in the world. People are drawn from across the world by its beauty, vitality and quality of life – Yorkness. Enhancing this essential quality of the city is crucial to York’s future as a thriving city. Our aim in this guide is to provide broad, helpful guidance to inform the development of the city through encouraging the developers, architects and builders to produce designs of great thought and care as well as asking what good design means to the people of York.
The guide has been produced by a member of the Civic Trust’s Environment Committee John Stevens, a retired town planner, working other other volunteer professional specialists and Civic Trust staff.
Many people choose to stay or move to York because it is a compact and human-scale city and offers a high quality of life and good ‘liveability’. York’s economic vitality relies on continuing to attract people to live, work and spend time here. Critical to this attraction is the quality of the built environment. As the Civic Trust we welcome proposals of good design where and when they benefit York and when not harmful to the city’s unique history or residents’ quality of life.
With York forecast to grow by 20,000 residents by 2050, and with more people working from home and using online shopping, we need to be able to develop well designed and connected sustainable communities. Sustainable communities need to be built for neighbourliness, have local services and facilities, plenty of green space and good air quality, and active means of transport such as public transport, footpaths and cycle routes rather than being car-dependent.
York’s Local Plan sets out the characteristics that ‘define the city and set the city apart from other similar cities in England.’ These characteristics can be defined as Yorkness. They are strong urban form, compactness, landmark monuments, architectural character, the rich diversity of age and construction, archaeological complexity, landscape and setting within its rural hinterland, cultural well being and verticality.
York Civic Trust, working with residents and key stakeholders and policymakers, has reviewed a number of developments in the city producing a report on each to assess the successes and weaknesses of each development as delivered against the initial aspirations of the developer.
York Civic Trust has produced a number of helpful checklists to assist in design choices for developments in the York.
The challenges facing the intending developer are many. Pre-application discussions with the City Council can explore the overall nature and scale of a prosed development and provide helpful guidance. The many constraints and considerations are likely to include:
The Local Plan sets the policy context for future development. It identifies major sites for the provision of future housing and other land uses. https://www.york.gov.uk/LocalPlan
The Local Transport Strategy sets out the strategy and lays down the standards required in order to achieve a sustainable transport system. https://www.york.gov.uk/LocalTransportStrategy
The built up area is surrounded by an extensive statutory Green Belt, and there are protected strays and commons.
3 areas have Neighbourhood Plans that have been adopted (Earswick; Rufforth and Knapton; Upper and Nether Poppleton); 14 more are in the process of development.
12 Village Design Statements were developed (although now somewhat dated). Master Plans have been, or are being developed, for major sites.
35 designated Conservation Areas, including the Historic Core. Each one has a Conservation Area Appraisal, and the Historic Core has 24 Character Areas with Statements. Characterisation Surveys[2] have been completed covering the whole city. Characterisation is a vital tool for developers and planners to ensure that a location’s historical identity contributes to today’s quality of life.
1,500 Listed Buildings, covering 2,000 individual buildings. 71 Listed at Grade I.
York is one of five cities that has been designated as an ‘Area of Archaeological Importance’[3] There are seven Areas of Archaeological Importance. The largest covers the central area, and there are others in Acomb, Dringhouses, Middlethorpe, The Retreat, Heworth and Glen Road. York has 40 Scheduled Ancient Monuments.York Civic Trust has equipped 85 buildings and structures with Blue Plaques, with around 12 more are added each year.
[2] The ‘City of York Historic Environment Characterisation Project’ (YHECP) was carried out as part of English Heritage’s characterisation programme. See Heritage Topic Paper (update 2014) for details.
[3] Part 2 of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act, 1979.
York Civic Trust will offer their advice and experience to discuss proposals. York Civic Trust can be contacted on info@yorkcivictrust.co.uk.
City of York Council planning and conservation teams are a wealth of knowledge on the city as well as being the statutory Local Planning Authority – https://www.york.gov.uk/PlanningAndBuilding.
Pre-application planning advice is offered by the City of York Council planning team. https://www.york.gov.uk/PlanningAdvicePreApp