COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF DEVELOPMENT PLAN MEETING

Thursday, June 17, 2021

MOTION NO.

MOTION: Councillor B. Lawlor, Councillor S. O'Hara

That Sections 25.3 and 25.4 of the Draft Development Plan be amended to include Persons who have grown up or spent substantial periods of their lives, (12 years), living in the area, who have moved away and who now wish to return to reside near to, or to care for, immediate family members, seeking to build on the family landholding or on a site within 5 km of the original family home, and that immediate family members are defined as mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister or guardian.

REPORT:

This motion seeks to amend Sections 2.5.3 and 2.5.4 of the current County Development Plan Rural Housing with the RU Zone and the Dublin Mountain Zone

The motion seeks to include the following wording:

The contents of the Motion are noted and seek to make changes to the policies and objectives under Sections 2.5.3 (Rural Housing in RU zone) and 2.5.4 (Rural Housing in HA – Dublin Mountains Zone) of the 2016 - 2022 Development Plan.

Under the CE Draft Plan, Rural Housing Policy is set out under Chapter 6 Housing. The sections relating to the motion are 6.9.2 (Rural Housing in RU zone) and 6.9.3 (Rural Housing in HA – Dublin Mountains Zone). These sections of the Chapter are then supported by Section 13.5.9 ’Rural Housing’ of Chapter 13 Implementation and Monitoring.

The rural areas of South Dublin County are classified as ‘rural areas under strong urban influence’ and in such areas, the National Planning Framework (NPF) outlines under NPO 19 that the Development Plan should facilitate the provision of single housing in the countryside based on the core consideration of demonstrable economic or social need to live in a rural area. The genuine need to live in rural areas such as South Dublin, is supported by the policies under Section 6.9 of the Draft Plan.

The County Development Plan seeks to strike a balance between facilitating housing for people who have a genuine need to live in rural areas of the County and who will contribute to the rural community and economy, while protecting such areas from unsustainable urban generated housing that would adversely impact on landscape character, environmental quality and visual amenity and our targets for climate change.

The draft Plan is clear that rural generated housing arises where the applicant has close family ties to the rural community and/or the applicant works in a type of employment intrinsic to the rural economy, which requires the applicant to live in the rural area to be close to their rural-based employment.

The CE Draft Plan retains the rural housing provisions of the current 2016 Development Plan, in line with the NPF, the Rural Housing Guidelines DEHLG (2005 guidelines) and relevant circulars. As such, the first part of the motion is already provided for once the applicant can provide satisfactory evidence of close family ties with the rural community. This does not prevent a person returning from being away provided evidence can be satisfactorily demonstrated of close family ties.

The introduction of a provision to allow for various family members to build on a site up to 5km away from the family home is not appropriate and would put further, potentially speculative, pressure on the rural and mountain areas for one-off homes. For example, a scenario could arise where a family with two children who both seek to build a house could potentially result in 2 new houses (within 5km from the family home) on a landholding and in time with a similar family scenario result in a further 4 houses in the rural area (within 5km of their family home – which in theory could in fact be up to 10km from the original family home) resulting in 6 new houses and so on. The cumulative impact of this potential exponential growth needs very careful consideration given the impact it could have on unsustainable housing in the rural and Dublin Mountain area.

In addition to the above it should be noted that a working group has been established by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government (the Department) to review and, where necessary, recommend changes to the 2005 guidelines. As of the 15th of June 2021, the Department have indicated that work is ongoing in preparing an update to the 2005 Sustainable Rural Housing Guidelines for planning authorities and it is expected that an initial draft of the updated guidelines will be available following environmental assessment later in 2021.

Having regard to the above it is not considered that proposals to amend the Rural Housing Strategy provisions in the plan in an ad-hoc manner which may have potential unforeseen knock-on effects to be best practice. It is therefore considered that the most prudent path forward in regard to Rural Housing policy provision is to initiate a review of the overall Rural Housing Policy provisions of the Plan following the publication of the updated Rural Housing Guidelines later in 2021. Should changes be recommended during this review they would be brought back to the Members as a Variation to the County Development Plan.

It is considered that an objective to reflect this commitment could be inserted as new objective H17 Objective 1 which will read as follows:

H17 Objective 1 To commence a review of the Rural Housing Policy and Local Need Criteria within six months of the adoption of the Plan and to include a public consultation as part of this process.

Recommendation

It is recommended that the motion is adopted with amendment whereby a new objective would be inserted in Chapter 6 titled H17 Objective 1, to read as follows:

To commence a review of the Rural Housing Policy and Local Need Criteria within six months of the adoption of the Plan and to include a public consultation as part of this process.