Cork council to zone enough land for 50,000 homes after requests from housing minister
The Cork County Council plan involves zoning for the building of apartments and various house sizes. File picture: Larry Cummins
Cork County Council has decided to zone enough land so developers can build 50,000 housing units between now and the end of 2035, with 50% earmarked for construction in the Cork Metropolitan Region.
Originally, the local authority had zoned land to build 38,000 units over this timeframe. It has increased the number on foot of requests from the housing minister James Browne who asked local authorities to do as much as possible to tackle the current housing crisis.
The council went back to the drawing board to rezone more land for building and entered into extensive discussions with the likes of Transport Infrastructure Ireland and Uisce Éireann to ensure that the landbanks could be serviced with the appropriate supporting infrastructure.
The plan involves zoning for the building of apartments and various house sizes. Half of the new homes will be constructed in the metropolitan area, with the bulk of them earmarked along the commuter rail corridor between Little Island, Glounthaune, Carrigtwohill and Midleton.
The metropolitan area also covers Cobh and Carrigaline and stretches across to Kilumney and Ovens on the western side of the city.
Larger towns outside the metropolitan area will get the bulk of the remaining homes, but plans for construction areas cover nearly every single settlement in the county.
The bulk of the land for the latest rezoning to increase housing development has been pencilled in for the Midleton, Mallow, Fermoy and Dunmanway areas.
Council officials carried out environmental assessment on all the additional earmarked land to ensure it is suitable for sustainable housing development.
It is understood that the Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) has looked favourably on the newly designated landbanks which were primarily chosen where housing demand is high.
Councillors held a special meeting in County Hall on Friday to adopt the variations to the current County Development Plan which allows for the increased building.
They voted in favour of 29 material alterations. These will go out for public consultation in the next two weeks and any submissions on them will be discussed by councillors in September. In the last round of public consultation nearly 290 submissions were received.
Independent Ireland councillor Danny Collins, Fine Gael councillor Caroline Cronin and Fianna Fáil's George Gill expressed disappointment that two landbanks earmarked for development in Bantry and Schull were rejected by council officials for inclusion in rezoning on the grounds that they could be prone to flooding.
County council chief executive Moira Murrell said they wanted to give “certainty and stability” to developers with the enhanced 10-year plan.
She said council officials have also held talks with Irish Rail and the National Transport Authority (NTA), which governs Bus Éireann, so that they can plan for new and increased services in areas where population growth is expected.
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