Planning watchdog criticises excessive rezoning for housing by Cork County Council

The local authority has been told to rethink its housing targets and zoning policy as it could result in over development in some areas

The Office of the Planning Regulator claims insufficient justification has been provided by Cork County Council for the amount of land proposed in the draft Cork County Development Plan 2022-2028 to be rezoned for housing. Picture Dan Linehan

The State’s planning watchdog has criticised a new draft development plan prepared by Cork County Council for proposing to rezone an excessive level of land for residential use beyond projected housing needs.

The Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) claims insufficient justification has been provided by the local authority for the amount of land proposed in the draft Cork County Development Plan 2022-2028 to be rezoned for housing.

The OPR said the council’s population and housing targets differed quite significantly from those determined using methodologies set out for implementation of the National Planning Framework (NPF).

The regulator calculated that Cork County Council exceeds the NPF target for population growth within its administrative area by around 4,200.

In addition, the OPR claims the council’s assessment of building 4,500 new housing units each year is inconsistent with planning policy and guidelines.

The OPR said the NPF already provided a challenging target of around 3,000 new homes per annum in Cork County over the lifetime of the plan.

“This is more than double what has been constructed annually since 2017,” said the regulator, Niall Cussen.

He said the council’s over-estimation of the amount of housing needed beyond that guided by the Housing Minister, Darragh O’Brien, had important implications “for the timely delivery of physical and social infrastructure in the right locations and the realisation of sustainable communities".

“It also risks requiring infrastructure beyond reasonable need that will divert resources and take longer to deliver and at greater cost,” said Mr Cussen.

The OPR has recommended that the council should revise its population and housing projections for the six-year period of the plan “to avoid disproportionate levels of new housing development in relatively small settlements with inadequate capacity to provide the necessary services and infrastructure, including public transport accessibility.” 

It said the local authority had also failed to designate the key towns of Mallow and Clonakilty for further growth with the draft plan failing to reflect their critical role in implementing regional planning policy.

Mr Cussen said he also had some concern about the approach to development proposed at Carrigaline and Carrigtwohill.

He claimed plans for zoning lands for a high technology campus and other businesses on the northern periphery of Carrigaline would effectively merge with zoned land in Ringaskiddy that could create a single conurbation which would be contrary to national planning policy on compact growth.

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The regulator said similar concerns exist about the proposed extension of industrial land use to the west of Carrigtwohill which would provide for almost continuous development with Glounthaune and called for such rezoning to be omitted from the draft plan.

Irish Water had indicated that there is insufficient wastewater treatment capacity to cater for the projected growth of Carrigtwohill and Midleton. Picture: Denis Minihane.

He noted Transport Infrastructure Ireland already claimed there were capacity issues with access to the N25 at Junction 3 (Cobh Cross) which could limit the development potential of lands in the area, while Irish Water had indicated that there is insufficient wastewater treatment capacity to cater for the projected growth of Carrigtwohill and Midleton.

Mr Cussen said the draft plan also did not include clear and implementable objectives for providing housing for Travellers.

The regulator said he made recommendations where there were clear breaches of either planning legislation, Government policy or the national or regional policy framework. The OPR acknowledged that the new draft plan proactively embraces many of the challenges and opportunities set out in the NPF which prioritises the development of the main towns and key villages. It welcomed the work done by the council on developing a joint retail strategy with Cork City Council for Cork’s metropolitan area.

However, it said there were still a number of other areas that required “significant work” in order to more fully alight the draft plan with national planning policy.

The regulator said it was aware that many councils were experiencing difficulty in flood risk management and observed that the Office of Public Works had raised issues with proposed town centre and neighbourhood centre zonings in Mitchelstown, Mallow, Kanturk and Carrigaline.

The OPR recommended the council to carry out a justification test for all the proposed rezonings to ensure that lands that are vulnerable to flooding are not rezoned for development.

Under legislation, the council’s chief executive is obliged to provide an explanation to the OPR if it does not accept the regulator’s recommendations.

The OPR can still make recommendations to the Minister of State for Planning and Local Government, Peter Burke, to direct the local authority to make changes to its development plan.