COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF DEVELOPMENT PLAN MEETING

Thursday, June 17, 2021

MOTION NO.

MOTION: Councillor C. King

Chapter 8: Community Infrastructure & Open Space - 8.7.4 That the Plan be amended to completely delete section 8.7.4 (Delivery of open space and 'Contributions in Lieu') and instead employ a strict policy of adherence to the Public Open Space Standards (Table 8.2) and if a development is deemed unable to deliver the required open space as determined under the standards set out then it be deemed an unsuitable and unsustainable Development in keeping with our 'Healthy Placemaking' statements and Policy's.

REPORT:

The inclusion of the ‘Delivery of Public Open Space and Contributions in Lieu’ has been introduced into this draft Plan to provide for circumstances where the minimum open space requirement of a standard percentage delivered on site has been met or circumstances where the provision of required open space is so small that it would not be viable to provide it within the subject site due to its size, shape or context. In these instances, a further provision is now available to the local authority where the provision of open space, beyond the standards required for on-site provision of 10 or 15 per cent (with the exception of sites which are too small to provide it) would allow for the enhancement of existing open space facilities within the County based on a financial contribution or a contribution to a new area of open space, physically or monetarily, should this need have been identified by the local authority.

For example, a planning application for 50 houses on RES zoned lands is required to provide a minimum of 10% of the site area for open space. This 10% figure is exactly the same as required in the current development plan. However, with the introduction of the contribution in lieu, any gap between the 10% provision on site and the overarching standard of 2.4 ha per 1000 population can be conditioned to be a contribution in lieu, based on a calculation of bedspaces to account for population. In previous Development Plans this was not possible as there was no policy to allow for it and the provision of the policy was satisfied once the 10% was met.

Therefore, to delete this section would be to go back to the current situation where a developer provides the minimum required standard of 10% for Res zoned lands, or 15% for RES-N zoned lands and no more with no link to the overall standard for the County of the provision of 2.4ha per 1000 population. It is considered that the deletion would be a retrograde step where the draft Plan was improving the opportunity to provide enhanced open space.

On this basis it is recommended that this motion is not adopted.

Recommendation

It is recommended that this motion is not adopted.