COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF DEVELOPMENT PLAN MEETING

Thursday, February 04, 2016

MOTION NO. 18

MOTION: Councillor F. Timmons

That the lands (about 5.7 hectares or 17.5 acres at Cornerpark, Newcastle), shown cross-hatched on the attached map which is signed and dated, shall be zoned with objective RES-N “To provide for new residential communities in accordance with approved action plans”.

REPORT:

Location of Lands Within Rural Metropolitan Area

A similar request in relation into the subject lands was made under a submission (Ref. 0357) on the Draft Development Plan and it is recommended under the Chief Executives Report that the Draft County Development Plan should not be amended.

The subject lands are located within the Rural Metropolitan Area of the County beyond the edge of the settlements defined under the Chapter 1 Core Strategy and settlement hierarchy of the Draft County Development Plan.

It is a requirement under the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended) for the County Development Plan, including its Core Strategy, to be consistent with the Regional Planning Guidelines for the Greater Dublin Area 2010-2022. This is supported by the DECLG Planning Policy Statement 2015 key principles, which states that that planning shall be plan-led and evidence based.

The Core Strategy including its settlement strategy has been prepared in accordance with the Regional Planning Guidelines and ensures that there are sufficient zoned lands in the County to provide for housing need and that such lands are located appropriately within a defined settlement hierarchy.

As indicated in Tables 1.8, 1.9 and 1.10 of the Draft Plan, provision has been made for 1,188 Hectares of lands that are zoned for residential development within the County. These are sufficient to provide for the housing needs of the County up to circa 2025 (40,273 dwellings). The subject lands would therefore be surplus to the housing needs of the County during the lifetime of the Draft Plan and beyond are also not appropriate to housing development by reason of their location beyond the edge of a defined settlement.

Zoning of sites such as the subject lands would allow for piecemeal development and shift the emphasis of consolidation away from the Metropolitan Consolidation Areas of the County (Palmerstown, Terenure, Templeogue, and Rathfarnham etc.), the Metropolitan Consolidation Towns of Tallaght, Lucan and Clondalkin, the Moderate Sustainable Growth Town of Saggart-Citywest and other Small Towns such as Rathcoole. This would undermine the consolidation of such settlements including their existing social and physical infrastructure, services and facilities and would promote lower density development and agglomerations across greenfield sites that are more difficult to serve by such infrastructure, services and facilities.

The zoning of the subject lands would therefore be at variance with the Core Strategy and would undermine its settlement hierarchy including its consistency with the Regional Planning Guidelines for the Greater Dublin Area.

Newcastle’s Role as a Small Town

Newcastle has been designated as a Small Town under the Draft Plan’s Core Strategy. It is stated under the Regional Planning Guidelines that levels of growth in all small towns shall be managed in line with the ability of local services to cater for any growth, responding to local demand. The guidelines on ‘Sustainable Residential Development in Urban Areas’ (2009) also advise that Small Towns should be developed as compact towns and should prioritise the development of brownfield and backland sites and expansion should be based on a number of well integrated sites.

The Draft Plan already provides for a housing land capacity of 28 hectares or approx. 700 houses for Newcastle, which will cater for Newcastle’s housing needs up to 2025. Furthermore, the subject lands are not appropriate to housing development by reason of their location beyond the edge of a defined settlement and Local Area Plan boundary in a rural area that is not served by existing or planned social and physical infrastructure, services and facilities.

The Draft Plan already provides for a housing land capacity of 28 hectares or approx. 700 houses for Newcastle, which will cater for Newcastle’s housing needs up to 2025. Furthermore, the subject lands are not appropriate to housing development by reason of their location beyond the edge of a defined settlement and Local Area Plan boundary in an area that is not served by existing or planned social and physical infrastructure, services and facilities.

Having undergone extensive public consultation, a comprehensive Local Area Plan (LAP) for Newcastle was adopted in December 2012. The LAP ensures that the existing zoned lands in Newcastle are developed in a co-ordinated manner that links the provision of social and physical infrastructure including parks and open spaces to housing. The LAP sets out a hierarchy of parks and open spaces within designated neighbourhoods under a Green Infrastructure Strategy; this includes a village park of approx. 6 hectares. The LAP Phasing Strategy prescribes the quantum of open spaces that is required under a series of phases that is linked to housing numbers.

The subject lands are located outside of the LAP boundary and would not be subject to the phasing strategy or the detailed standards that are applicable to lands within the LAP. This would significantly undermine the development of lands within the LAP boundary and undermine the realisation of the various strategies that have been incorporated into the LAP including those that seek the provision of parks and opens spaces, the creation of a sustainable urban drainage system, the incorporation of built heritage (including ancient burgage plots) and renewal of a village core.

Furthermore, the proposed RES-N zoning of the subject lands would increase land capacity in Newcastle by approx. 26% to 35 hectares increasing housing capacity in Newcastle to approx. 875 additional dwellings. The zoning of the subject lands would therefore be surplus to the housing needs of Newcastle within the lifetime of the Draft Plan and beyond 2025 and there is no evidence base for such an increase in housing lands.

This would undermine the sustainable development of Newcastle, the co-ordinated approach of its Local Area Plan and would be at variance with the Development Plan Core Strategy, the Regional Planning Guidelines and Planning and Development Legislation.

Recommendation

It is recommended that this motion is not adopted.