A key role for the new Local Plan will be to set out a sustainable pattern of development for Exeter which will help to deal with the issues we have identified and achieve the vision for the city. Planning for development proactively will mean we can steer it to appropriate locations where impacts can be managed and where it will have the most significant benefit.

Our current planning documents include a strategy for meeting our development needs in terms of housing, jobs, shopping, community facilities and infrastructure. We need to review this approach to make sure it will be appropriate for the future. The key strands of the current approach to meeting the city’s development needs are included below.

• Focus on the city centre, existing centres and previously developed land, including the regeneration of the Grecian Quarter (around Sidwell Street and the bus station) and the Water Lane area (around the canal in the Haven Banks area)
• Provide for additional development in sustainable urban extensions on the edges of the city
• Steer development away from the hills to the north and north west - the important landscape areas for the city