NEW LEGISLATION TO reform the planning system will “unnecessarily restrict” the importance of county and city councillors in the creation of development plans, TDs are due to hear.
The Association of Irish Local Government (AILG) is today anticipated to raise concerns about the Planning and Development Bill 2023, and is due to tell TDs that it will diminish the “primacy” of councillors in the planning process.
In its opening statement to the Joint Oireachtas Housing Committee, the AILG will say that there are positive aspects to the bill but that it has reservations about specific aspects.
“While there are some good features in this Bill – not least in its objective to consolidate a patchwork of planning laws that has evolved over recent years – there are also some overarching issues which in the view of many of our members will work to unnecessarily restrict the Councillors’ primacy in the Development Plan process,” Cllr Pat Fitzpatrick, President of the AILG, will tell TDs.
“Local democracy is the bedrock of our civic culture; if the Oireachtas diminishes the role of the councillor in a matter as relevant to local communities as planning then the Oireachtas is diminishing Irish democracy as a whole.”
The proposed bill was published by Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien last month, with wide-ranging reforms to the planning system being initially approved by Cabinet in late 2022.
Reforms proposed under the bill include how judicial reviews are brought, with the bill changing how residents associations can take cases against planning decisions, as well as introducing an extension to the time local development plans are in effect.
The change to local development plans will see their overall lifespan increase from six years to ten years.
Currently, local authorities create development plans that map out what individual lands are zoned for, whether that is residential, commercial or industrial.
Under the new plan, development plans will be made more specific in the type of development that will be allowed take place in localities, with more details on the style of development.
This means that areas zoned for residential use may be more specifically labelled to be for low-density or high-density residential development.
Pre-legislative scrutiny of the bill is currently being carried out by TDs and Senators on the Joint Oireachtas Housing Committee.
In particular, Fitzpatrick will say that the proposed legislation will create a centralised planning structure through “rigid” national and regional planning frameworks, which may not reflect the situation in individual communities around the country.
He will add that giving the Office of the Planning Regulator further oversight “further limits the discretion councillors have in shaping their locality based on their realistic local knowledge of its needs and capacities”.
The Local Authorities Members Association (LAMA) is also raising concerns over the bill, particularly over the increased lifespan for development plans.
LAMA will tell TDs that, without robust reviews, the ten year lifespan for development plans is “far too long” and that it may lead to a scenario where councillors elected do not contribute to a development plan.
“Effectively on a rolling ten year plan, it is possible that Councillors elected to a Local Authority may never get the chance to have any input to a plan,” LAMA will tell TDs.
“A robust review needs to be built in. One could say the reviews are there already but what we have presently is a review by the Executive, which only casts a glance to see is the plan still compliant with national legislation.
“Councillors need to be able to initiate a proper review.”
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