East Hemel is set to deliver affordable housing, new parks and up to four new schools
The Crown Estate has submitted an outline planning application for 4,000 new homes to St Albans City and District Council and Dacorum Borough Council.
East Hemel, the proposed 975-acre town to the east of Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, is expected to deliver roughly 40% of the homes for affordable tenures and later living accommodation.
Land has also been ringfenced for Gypsy and traveller pitches alongside a new country park and valley park, up to four new schools, a medical centre, sports pitches and new retail and community facilities.
The development aims to prioritise walking, cycling and public transport by introducing a sustainable transport route running through the East Hemel area.
It forms part of the Hemel Garden Communities (HGC) programme, which aims to build up to 11,000 new homes by 2050.
The plan for East Hemel includes two distinct neighbourhoods with a mix of housing types and tenures.
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While more than a third of the town will be publicly accessible open space, a 1.8 million sq ft dedicated employment and innovation zone will be placed at the centre of the site.
East Hemel forms part of the Herts Innovation Quarter, an enterprise zone working towards the delivery of 3m sq ft of commercial space for businesses specialising in sustainability, such as agri-tech.
The site is located within the Chilterns National Landscape - a large area of protected countryside - and the Chilterns Beechwood Special Area of Conservation. It is made up of agricultural land, woodland belts, historic lanes, and farmsteads close to the M1.
The submission follows 18 months of community consultation, where concerns have been raised around traffic, integration with neighbouring communities, infrastructure delivery and the provision of open space among other topics.
The project team also includes Turner & Townsend for project management, David Lock Associates for planning, Prior + Partners as masterplanners, Michael Sparks Associates as commercial architect, Savills for development consultancy and AECOM for cost consultancy.
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