COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF DEVELOPMENT PLAN MEETING

Thursday, February 04, 2016

MOTION NO. 20

MOTION: Councillor M. Duff

That the land at Boherboy Road, as indicated in red on Map 3, currently zoned RU be rezoned RES-N in the Development Plan and/or that a SLO be inserted  that restricts the development on the site to a mix of Social and Affordable Housing.

REPORT:

Proposed Zoning

A submission seeking the zoning of the subject lands for residential development was made on the Draft County Development Plan (Ref. 0249).

The subject lands are located along a narrow rural road within the Rural Metropolitan Area of the County beyond the edge of the settlements defined under the Chapter 1 Core Strategy and settlement hierarchy.

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. The Core Strategy contained in the Draft Development Plan including its settlement strategy 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). This includes for 138 hectares or 4,196 additional dwellings at Saggart-Citywest.

The proposed residential zoning of the subject lands would increase land capacity adjacent to Saggart-Citywest by an additional 53 dwellings and would be surplus to the housing needs of Saggart-Citywest and the County during the lifetime of the Draft Plan. The subject lands are also not appropriate to housing development by reason of their location outside the edge of a defined settlement and in an area not served by existing or planned social and physical infrastructure, services and facilities.

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 Small Towns of Newcastle and Rathcoole and, in particular, the Moderate Sustainable Growth Town of Saggart-Citywest. 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 inconsistent with the Regional Planning Guidelines for the Greater Dublin Area and the Core Strategy for the County and would undermine both strategies. This would undermine the sustainable development of Saggart -Citywest and would be at variance with Planning and Development Legislation.

Proposed SLO

Further to the inappropriateness of the subject site for housing, the lands are within private ownership and therefore cannot be developed by the Council for the purpose of social or affordable housing.

Affordable housing schemes have been stood down since 2011 and it is instructed under Circular: Housing 33 of 2015 (August 2015) that local authorities should now seek to fulfil Part V obligations in the form or direct transfer of completed social housing units in accordance with the requirements of the Urban Regeneration and Housing Act 2015. This undermines the viability of developing the subject site for the purpose of social housing.

Recommendation

It is recommended that this motion is not adopted.