Collaborative Vision for Tomorrow: Strategic Framework & Local Place Plan
In 2022 Foundation trustees approached Collective Architecture to explore if they might be able to help the Foundation prepare a submission to Moray Council’s Local Development Plan – so that Moray Local Plan policies might evolve in a way which would be supportive for the Park Ecovillage. At the time, it was anticipated that submissions would be due in autumn 2023 so FF commissioned Collective Architecture to prepare a strategic framework which could be submitted to the Local Development Plan process. Work on this began in earnest in January 2023 and has continued through to the completion of a comprehensive Strategic Framework Report in January 2024 – available to view here:
By chapter:
The report is the outcome of countless hours of work by Foundation staff, Collective Architecture and many community members who generously contributed their time to the process through DevCom and subsequent working groups. The process included multiple consultations within our community, with our neighbours and with Moray Council. It’s a step on the process towards a comprehensive Local Place Plan submission, which will help to define the Moray planning policies which we must work within for the next decade or more.
Since we began this work, much has changed for the Foundation, in our community and in the Local Development Plan process. During early engagement with Moray Council we were encouraged to use a new Local Place Plan framework, and the deadlines for final submission moved back – now to the end of 2024.
With the completion of this phase of work, Foundation trustees are delighted to hand over leadership of the next phase of this Local Development Plan work to Marilyn Hamilton and JR Fulton as co-chairs of the Local Place Plan Group (LPPG). Trustees hope that the Strategic Framework will be a useful tool and reference that Park residents might use to develop their own Local Place Plan, informed by the Framework and which can support our collective aspirations for the Park Ecovillage in the next decade and beyond. Trustees look forward to the Foundation’s continued involvement in this process, now as one of many Park community groups – one voice among many and under the leadership of the LPPG and others in the community.
Written by Mark Anderson
on behalf of the Findhorn Foundation Trustees