Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to footer

Community engagement stage 3: July 2025

Welcome to the latest exhibition about The Crown Estate’s proposed East Hemel development.

It shows the detailed work that has been progressed since the community design workshop in January 2025, and community drop-ins in February 2025. This is the last opportunity to give your feedback before the submission of an Outline Planning Application in Autumn 2025, after which St Albans City and District Council (SADC) will undertake formal public consultation.

Background

The East Hemel site lies within a wider area known as Hemel Garden Communities (HGC). It has been allocated as a development opportunity in the draft SADC Local Plan, looking to provide:

  • Up to 4,000 new homes

  • Up to 1.8 million sq ft of employment space

  • New green and open spaces

  • Areas supporting ecological diversity

  • A range of supporting infrastructure including schools, local centres, play spaces and parks, as well as active and vehicular travel routes

The Crown estate has already undertaken two stages of community engagement that have helped shape the approach to the masterplan. The exhibition today shows how this works has developed into the illustrative masterplan (a plan showing what could come forward on the site but with specific design details).

Event programme

View East Hemel previous engagament summary

Our emerging vision for East Hemel

  • Illustrative Masterplan

    The work on the masterplan has progressed following earlier community engagement and reviews with local authorities and statutory consultees such as Highways England.

    View the illustrative masterplan

  • Country Park & Open Spaces

    The East Hemel masterplan aims to reflect the importance of the rural nature and topography of the site by using networks of parks and green spaces, each with their own distinct identity, to shape and link neighbourhoods.

    Learn more

  • Neighbourhood & Housing

    Hemel Hempstead New Town was modelled on a series of distinctive neighbourhoods, each served by a local centre. East Hemel will continue this legacy with its two new neighbourhoods.

    Learn more

  • Northern Neighbourhood

    The northern residential neighbourhood is shaped by its landscape, where a flat plateau descends into the steeper slopes of the Var Valley. The new neighbourhood will wrap around an expansive Country Park, with the historic Wood End Farm re-purposed for new uses. Mature trees and historic hedgerows are protected and naturally link together communities.

    Read more about the northern neighbourhood

  • Southern Neighbourhood

    The southern residential neighbourhood is defined by its landscape of rolling valleys and hills, where distinct new communities will be formed on the slopes, separated by green valleys below. Protected mature trees, historic hedgerows and woodlands will form green links between neighbourhoods.

    Read more about the southern neighbourhood

  • Central Employment Area

    East Hemel's commercial area will attract new businesses to the area and create thousands of local jobs in UK growth sectors. It will form an eastward extension of Maylands, taking advantage of its location in the Hertfordshire Enviro-Tech Enterprise Zone to support the economic growth and prosperity of both Hemel Hempstead and Hertfordshire.

    Learn more about the central employment area

Community Facilities & Services

The community has been clear about the importance of ensuring the new development is designed so that residents have easy access to facilities and services in the neighbourhood, ideally with facilities clustered together to reduce the need to travel to multiple locations.

Learn more about the facilities and services

  • Sustainability, Energy & Water

    East Hemel is planned with long-term goals of being an environmentally and socially positive development. The design team are progressing these goals through the masterplan design.

    Read more about the key features

  • Noise & Pollution

    East Hemel is located close to the M1 motorway. To address this, we have developed a number of strategies for air quality and acoustics to address and mitigate against any associated risks.

    Read more about these strategies

  • Stewardship

    All the public open spaces and community facilities at East Hemel will need to be looked after to a high standard, in line with TCE's long-term vision. This includes the Country Park, public realm, food growing spaces, sports facilities and community buildings.

    View the key principles of Stewardship

Phasing & Implementation: The delivery of homes, community facilities and commercial space will be carefully phased over 15-20 years:

  • Early delivery of infrastructure to facilitate transport and green space connections

  • Promotion of local centres, community facilities and services

  • A range of homes provided using a number of different delivery partners, including SME's

  • Proactive construction management to minimise disruption to existing and new residents

  • Phased implementation of stewardship

  • Early job creation from both the employment sites and construction process

Planning Application & Next Steps

Outline Application

The Crown Estate is preparing an Outline Planning Application for East Hemel, to be submitted in Autumn 2025. The application will:

  • Set out the land uses being applied for.

  • Establish guiding principles to enable the coordination of development over time.

  • Include an illustrative masterplan showing the key open spaces and different types of development uses (housing, schools etc).

  • Provide an assessment of the impact of development on the environment, highway network and local services, and the necessary mitigation measures to be confirmed through a S106 legal agreement.

  • St Albans City and District Council and Dacorum Borough Council will consult on the application, and will consider any representations made when they determine the application.

Future planning stages

If the Outline Planning Application is approved, design codes and future applications will come forward as ‘Reserved Matters’ once Key Phases are established, covering the detailed design of streets, spaces and buildings for each phase of development. The Crown Estate and its partners will also continue to engage with local communities throughout these detailed planning stages.

View our consultation resources

Please note that some browsers may not load all images within PDFs.