Warning over plan to rezone for housing
The local authority has planned to increase the population in the Blarney/Glanmire areas by around 21,000 by 2020.
However, according to Cllr John Gilroy (Lab), the council has already rezoned enough land in that area to build 21,000 homes.
“That’s already one home for every person and now a new phase of the County Development Plan is under way with a large volume of applications from land owners and developers for the rezoning of land in the county,” Cllr Gilroy said.
The council is proposing housing development takes place along the rail corridor between Blarney and Midleton as part of the Cork Area Strategic Plan.
In the last County Development Plan in 2005, enough land was zoned for 2,500 houses at Stoneview, north of Blarney. A Strategic Development Zone was recently declared by the Government to build a further 5,000 houses at Monard, while there is a proposal to develop another 5,000 houses north of the city.
“It must be remembered that at least two further County Development Plans will take place before 2020.
“I belive we must be extremely conservative when it comes to zoning in the future. Recent reports suggest that there are up to 90 unfinished housing estates in Cork.
“A recent CSO report suggested that about 16% of houses in the county are unoccupied. If this is the case we have to ask ourselves why do we need extensive residential zoning,” Cllr Gilry said.
He believes the council may have to dezone some land which it had earmarked in the past from residential development.
“We should be looking instead at providing lands for residential development in strategic areas and capping the number of houses that can be built in certain locations,” he said.
