COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF DEVELOPMENT PLAN MEETING

Tuesday, March 01, 2022

MOTION NO. 16

MOTION: Councillor C. O'Connor

To retain the Draft Plan zoning of  'RES-N' - 'To provide for new residential communities in accordance with approved area plans' on lands to the southwest of Rathcoole which have been recommended for rezoning to ‘RU’ - 'To protect and improve rural amenity and to provide for the development of agricultural' arising from recommended changes by the Office of the Planning Regulator

REPORT:

The motion proposes to retain the Draft Plan zoning of RES-N on the subject lands which would change the CE Recommendation to rezone this 0.6ha piece of land situated to the southwest of Rathcoole from Objective RES-N to Objective RU – Rural. 

This issue was submitted to the Draft Plan through the public consultation period under submissions SD-C195-247 and the Chief Executive (CE) responded under Chapter 2 Core Strategy and Settlement Strategy – Residential and Zoning Submission - Rathcoole , pg243-248 and recommended no change to the plan.  

In addition and arising from the Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) submission (SD-C195-227) on the Draft Plan and recommendation 3 which  related to the development of Rathcoole and Newcastle , the CE has recommended a planned and phased approach to the development of these settlements in line with the OPR’s recommendations and Regional and National Policy (See Appendix 1 to the CE Report for full details). Such measures specifically relate to the intention of this motion.

Having examined and considered the content of the motion, recommendations, and response to the OPR, the view of the CE remains unchanged for the following reasons: 

The Core Strategy and Settlement Strategy in Chapter 2 sets out population and housing figures which must be consistent with the National Planning Framework (NPF) and the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy (RSES) as required under the Planning and Development Act 2000 (As Amended). South Dublin County is anticipated to grow by 46,518 persons with the housing target for the County, as set by Ministerial Guidelines and the NPF Road Map, being 17,817 homes between 2021 - 2028. Chapter 2 of the Draft Plan also confirms that the County has enough land for a further 10,470 units (79%) above the net household need and therefore there is no need to re-zone additional lands or zone new additional lands over and above those currently set out under the current 2016 County Development Plan. Having regard to above figures set out in the Core Strategy and the current excess of zoned land, it is considered that there is sufficient flexibility to meet the household requirements for 2031 and potentially up to 2040 without the need to zone further lands such as those currently proposed under this motion. 

It should be noted that the revised target figures of 15,576 for the 6 Year Plan period in response to the Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) recommendations, set out separately under the response to the OPR in the CE Report, do not impact on the excess land capacity available to meet the revised targets. Therefore, to re-zone or zone new additional lands over and above those currently set out in the Draft Plan would be contrary to National and Regional planning policy. 

The CE report sets out the housing unit growth for Rathcoole of 487 units over the 6-year life of the plan. Such unit growth has been allocated applying a sequential approach (in line with the provisions of NPO9) to development whereby lands closest to the centre of Rathcoole with the ability to delivery key infrastructure or where permission has already been granted have been identified as suitable to meet this target.  

The analysis carried out by the Planning Department on foot of the submission from the Office of the Planning Regulator, has identified that the subject lands are excess to any requirements during the lifetime of this plan. It should be noted that RES or RES-N zoning is not required for the road proposal which runs over the lands.  

Furthermore, the Strategic Flood Risk Assessment has identified that a portion of the lands have been identified as liable to flood from the adjacent watercourse (Tootenhill).The proposed zoning is  incompatible with the level of flood risk as per OPW Guidelines. Zoning of lands liable to flood should be avoided as per the sequential approach to flood risk management (OPW Guidelines). 

Having regard to the context set out above, where there are sufficient zoned and sequentially located lands identified for growth in Rathcoole with the capacity to accommodate the core strategy targeted growth for Rathcoole of 487 units over the Plan period, the RES-N zoning of the subject lands is neither appropriate nor necessary and would be contrary to national and regional policy.

CE Recommendation:  It is recommended that this motion is not adopted, and that the subject lands are zoned RU in line with the CE Recommendation of the CE Report.