Sustainable ammendments made to Cambridge Council’s Botanic Place
Amendments designed to limit the environmental effect of the Botanic Place workspace in Cambridge have been submitted to Cambridge County Council, the property developers, Railpen and Socius said.
Botanic Place, located next to Cambridge University Botanic Garden on Hills Road, has existing planning consent for an architect-designed £500m, 500,000 sq. ft workspace scheme.
The mixed use scheme will also create over 200 local jobs through the development of cafes, restaurants and a market hall.
The developers said the design changes, which were submitted by a Section 73 planning application on 26 May, would reduce the carbon impact of construction, improve energy efficiency, prioritise cyclists over cars, and improve shared outdoor green space.
Doug Higgins, development director, Socius said: “Through our conversations with the council and community over the past few years, it is clear that sustainability, green space and limiting vehicle congestion are of high importance in Cambridge.”
The amendments include reducing the depth of the basement and shortening construction time of the building work by 21 months and increasing the amount of publicly accessible green space to over 2000 sqm.
The plans would also cut available parking spaces while boosting bicycle parking spaces to over 1,500.