Land East of Parsonage Lane, South Molton - North Devon District ...

5.6 A well-designed building form should aid in the creation of the sense of place; defining theurban form, strengthening key routes and improving legibility. The layout should respondto the topography and setting of the site to retain the character of the landscape.5.7 The design of the development should, where possible, reflect the built form andarchitectural details common to South Molton to create a development that will integrateinto the character of the area, the setting of the town and its local distinctiveness. Thedevelopment should incorporate sustainable design and construction principles. Designachieving a rating within the Code for Sustainable Homes will be required by Policy Gof the draft Regional Spatial Strategy subject to any revised wording of Policy G onceadopted.5.8 The predominant building height for the site should be 2 storeys to ensure that theproposals blend with the local scale and massing of the surrounding properties. There may,however, be certain circumstances in which 2½ or 3 storey buildings may be appropriate,for example, to define spaces or create statements on focal buildings. In these cases,this should be justified through the Design and Access Statement accompanying anyapplication.5.9 In addition to considering appropriate building heights as part of the built form, therelationship between the various features of the site to be retained should be considered,such as the relationship between residential use and open space, existing and newlandscaped areas, and highways.5.10 Topography – The topography of the site also means that building on certain areas of thesite, at a higher level, would be more visually intrusive on the landscape than building onlower levels. The development proposals should therefore be constrained to proposingbuildings at the same maximum contour level as the surrounding development.Site Topography15Land East of Parsonage Lane, South Molton (Policy SMO2d) ADOPTED DEVELOPMENT BRIEFapproximate gradients steeper than 1:5napproximate gradients between 1:6 and 1:8approximate gradients flatter than 1:9RPS PlanningApril 2008