A Residential Design Code is a set of simple design requirements for new developments, which sets out specific rules and considerations when designing new housing sites in Doncaster.
Design codes provide a framework for creating healthy, safe, green, environmentally responsive, sustainable, and distinctive places, with a consistent and high-quality standard of design.
The code will help control the quality of places to live as it will be used by Town Planners and Designers.
We are interested in understanding what the views and preferences of local people are, so we can use this to shape the Design Code being prepared. For example if local people really value a feature of their local area we can seek to ensure those features are important in the design code.
The surveys are open to anyone, but ideally we want the views from Doncaster residents of any age and background.
The post occupancy questionnaire is aimed at residents who live in houses that were built within the City of Doncaster between 2014 and 2024 by a housing developer. Residents of key target areas have been contacted directly by the City of Doncaster Council via letter however the questionnaire is open to all residents living in homes built by a developer between 2014 and 2024. All participants will be asked to submit their postcode so that questionnaire responses can be linked to specific new-build developments. Please do not participate in the questionnaire if you are a resident that has completed a self-build project.
The Doncaster Residential Design Code will be a practical and useable guide for all parties involved in the design and planning of new housing development in Doncaster including the public, councillors, housing developers and planning officers. It will set out a series of rules and guidelines that, when followed, will combine to ensure that all proposals are designed and built to the highest quality possible. Having a design code should help in a number of ways:
The Doncaster Local Plan was adopted in 2021 and contains policies to control the quality of new housing development and where this should take place. The design code is intended to add an additional layer of guidance that builds upon existing policies but defines in more detail how residential developments should be designed.
The National Design Guide sets out 10 characteristics of a well-designed place, which will be incorporated into the design code as well as Local Plan requirements and the views of the community and stakeholders.
The 10 characteristics address the key elements of community, natural and built environment and cover all the cross-cutting issues like climate-change adaptation and healthy living.
You can read more via the National Design Guide here.
You can keep up to date by checking the news section here. You can also register your email address for updates here.
We do not want to limit young people’s creativity too much so have left the format of entries and media very open. The entries will be judged by Council officers, with one guest judge, on 3 main criteria creativity, clarity of ideas, and quality of presentation, with regard to the age of the entrant. Please leave an email address when submitting the entry and the winners will be announced soon after the engagement period closes on 30th November 2024.