Botanic House in Hills Road. New developments in the city centre are shooting skywards in order to meet demands for new homes and office space.

CAMBRIDGE’S skyline is undeniably shooting skywards in a bid to accommodate a growing number of people moving to the city both to live and work.

The height of the 10-storey Belvedere apartments on the junction of Hills Road and Cherry Hinton Road attracted controversy.

In the past few years the height of new buildings – including the 10-storey Belvedere apartments on the corner of Hills Road and Cherry Hinton Road and the nearby seven-storey Botanic House office building at the Hills Road and Station Road intersection – have attracted controversy.

The currently under-construction Parkside Fire Station site – which will see a seven-storey block of apartments built – was met with concerns from city councillors, as was the outline planning application for the cb1 development where it was stipulated the tallest building should no higher than 10 storeys.

During the course of the next few months, however, guidance is expected to be approved by Cambridge City Council’s environment committee which will see buildings taller than six 
storeys in Cambridge’s historic core subjected to intense scrutiny.

And the area outside the city’s inner ring road – bordered by the Backs, Lensfield Road, Chesterton Road and crossing Newmarket Road – will have a threshold of four storeys after which strict planning criteria must automatically be adhered 
to by town planners and councillors.

Tall buildings have stood proud in Cambridge for centuries although height was not usually used as occupied space.

In the city centre it is hoped the guidance will help preserve much-loved views and ensure new buildings do not detract from historic landmarks such as churches and university colleges.

Council bosses say outside the inner ring road the guidance will help prevent neighbourhoods feeling overlooked, shadows looming over gardens and wind tunnels emerging as a result of a growing number of 
tall buildings.

While the likes of King’s College Chapel and the Catholic church in Hills Road have stood tall and proud for centuries, Glen Richardson, head of the joint urban design team at Cambridge City Council, says modern high rises must be “tremendously well-designed” and in the right locations.

He said that in future members of the city council’s planning committee would be aided by emerging technology enabling them to see a proposed tall building in 3D – allowing the design to be experienced and examined from all angles.

He said: “We are trying to manage tall buildings and we have got to get well-designed tall buildings in the right location.

“For example, you would not want to see a building anywhere near King’s 
College Chapel blocking 
the view.

“We have had a number of applications which have been quite controversial so we felt we needed something to help developers and the planning committee.

“We don’t want Cambridge to sprawl.

“We want to compact the city by increasing its density which makes it more sustainable. There is, however, not the demand for a Canary Wharf or a Gherkin-type construction here.”

A now-finished consultation period on Cambridge’s draft ‘skyline guidance’ – published in October - has already attracted much interest. Officers originally proposed a threshold of seven storeys in the historic core and five on the outskirts of the city as a limit where strict scrutiny will come into play during the planning process.

This, however, was reduced to six and four storeys respectively last week after requests from conservation charity Cambridge Past Present and Future (CambridgePPF) as well as those made in nine other submissions to the council.

Chief executive of CambridgePPF Carolin Gohler said: “We thought the former thresholds were too high and we felt that detailed discussions needed to happen at a lower threshold.

“The new guidance will kick in before it is too late in terms of height.”

Ms Gohler said she welcomed the new guidance and the fact it would be in force ahead of the council adopting a new local plan 
in 2014.

“Certainly we are pleased that thresholds are significantly lowered and the skyline guidance was triggered earlier,” she said.

“There is so much pressure with tall buildings at the moment that 2014 is too late to do something about it.

“It is not just the historic core of the city and the conservation areas that concern us. There should only be tall buildings if they are really exceptional buildings of quality that add to the flair and aura of the city.”

Alex Smith, who tweets under the guise of @Lost
Cambridge – on which he debates the city’s future environment – said tall buildings set a precedent 
for similarly-tall future developments.

“The chimney at Addenbrooke’s set a precedent but there are a number of well-designed medical buildings surrounding it,” he said.

“The same thing happened at Guy’s Hospital, an unattractive 1960s building near London Bridge which has The Shard next to it.

“But there is a danger of setting a precedent as you can build something which is, similarly, not very good nearby.

“Botanic House near Cambridge station is a horrible glass building and does not fit with the area.

“Other developers will come in with glass-clad apartment designs and 
the council will have trouble turning them down as permission has already 
been granted to a similar development.”