Landscape & Visual Impact Assessments - What is it all about?

At Reed Studio we carry out Landscape and Visual Impact Assessments and Appraisals for our clients for whom it may be useful or indeed required for planning applications. Indeed most often we carry out mini assessments in the background (even when not required) because the principles of the assessment process is just good practice. A Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment or Appraisal (LVIA) is a process led by Landscape Institute guidelines to assess, in simple terms, the state of the landscape now and the state of the landscape after a development has been completed (incorporating things like where can the site be seen from within the surrounding landscape and how does the development affect the local landscape character). The Landscape Institute is the equivalent of The Royal Institute of British Architects and is the governing body for Landscape Architects. What is great about LVIA is that during the process we can identify opportunities for reducing the level of impact of the proposed development which can be incorporated into the design process. This is ‘Landscape Led’ design, and if incorporated early enough in the process can lead to design outcomes that are sympathetic to the landscape, pleasing to the planning authority and can make future users happy. If you are further down the line and need an LVIA, it’s not too late and we can still help.

LVIAs can be carried out for any project, new dwellings, commercial outlets, glamping or educational establishments. Our fees start at £2100 (no VAT charged) and timescale tends to be 6 to 8 weeks, but we can try to incorporate quicker timescales if there is an urgency. If you’d like to learn more about the process from the horse’s mouth listen to Emma Reed of Reed Studio when speaking at the Glamping Show 2023:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmfpNOu0eqs

Examples of LVIAs we have carried out include: Ribble Valley View Lodge Park, Lancashire

This was an existing lodge park in the Ribble Valley in Lancashire, the clients wanted to do an expansion to the park of 29 new lodges. They had submitted in a planning application and it was refused and then they took us on to do a resubmission of the application as the planning officer was concerned about the effect on the landscape and in particular the views on the entrance route into the local village.

On assessment, due to the nature of the topography of the site, it was the uppermost lodges which would be visible from the road and through careful landscape contouring, extending an existing natural high point within the site, we were able to sculpt the landscape to hide the lodges within the landscape. This was done in a naturalistic way as opposed to applying engineered bunds to the outer edge. The results were a reduction in number of proposed lodges due to the constraints of the application site boundary however the project was a success as planning permission was approved under the same application without the need to carry out a new application, and a beautiful holiday park set within naturalistic surroundings is now being created.