Council to alter two-month-old blueprint for rural housing
An amendment to the new County Development Plan, which has just come into effect, would have major repercussions for people seeking planning for housing in a designated “Pressure Zone” circling Limerick City, where planning is more difficult to obtain.
The new County Development Plan extended the Pressure Zone and the council management are firmly opposed to a proposal to reduce the “pressure zone” back to where it was prior to the new plan being adopted.
The old pressure zone extended to about a ten-mile radius of the city extending to villages such as Adare, Kildimo and Crecora.
However, the new development plan brought the Pressure Zone into the Rathkeale electoral area, making it more difficult to get planning for one-off rural housing in this extended zone.
In order to qualify for planning permission for one-off housing within the Pressure Zone an applicant must have resided in the area prior to 1990 and only sons and daughters or close relatives of existing residents can apply for planning. People involved in agriculture can also seek planning to build within the pressure zone.
Cllr Tom Neville, FG, who voted for the County Development Plan last May, is one of the councillors who now wants the Pressure Zone issue revisited and revised.
Cllr Neville said: “I want the Pressure Zone boundary reduced and brought back to where it was previously.
“What this Pressure Zone is saying is ‘no to outsiders’.”
He said the extended Pressure Zone was preventing people who wanted to move out into rural Co Limerick.
Cllr Neville said: “These are people who can bring skills and experience to benefit rural communities and rural life.”
However, some members of the council are reluctant to go against the management who say the extended Pressure Zone area is necessary for balanced housing development.
Cllr John Griffin, FF, said: “The professional advice we have been given is that if the Pressure Zone was not extended, parts of the county would be denuded of population, with everybody wanting to move in closer to the city.”
Cllr Griffin said he will abstain on today’s vote, unless he hears of a better planning argument from the floor of the council chamber than the one already given to them.
