What makes the buildings and villages of the National Park so special? What do you consider good design to be? What should future development in the North York Moors look like?
We are creating a new Design Code – a tool that will shape future development within the National Park.
What is a design code?
In essence, the Design Code will ensure that new development continues the gentle evolution of our built environment, which has been shaped over thousands of years.
In practical terms, it will be a set of design requirements that provide specific, detailed parameters for the physical development of an area. It will also set a baseline standard of quality and practice, which the National Park Authority will consider when determining planning applications.
At this stage, before new legislation is fully enacted, our Design Code will likely be adopted as a Supplementary Planning Document (SPD). When this happens, it will replace our current set of design guides.
We have done some early thinking on how to create a Design Code for the National Park and asked for your views. We asked five questions. You can explore these by scrolling across the boxes below.
Next stages
We will use all your feedback to help develop a draft design code, at which point we will ask for further views. We expect this to happen around November 2025. We then hope to finalise our Design Code by June 2026.