RSS Feed
-
Recent Posts
- An Bord Stampála
- Vacancy, housing and the built environment in Ireland: Some quick thoughts
- 5 million people, but what about migration?
- The Housing Crisis – A Concrete Dilemma
- Post-Growth Planning for Post-#COVID19 Times
- A case for Critical Geography in #COVIDtimes: Spatialities, Liveability and New Ordinaries
- “Why can’t we have nice things?”: our cities are sites of struggle, not playgrounds.
- Brexit Geographies, the Irish Border and the Future of Cross-border Cooperation: Introducing a Special Issue of Irish Geography
- An outsider in Ireland – ‘Dutchness’ as capital of sympathy in Knocknaheeny and Ballymun
- Public housing and the looming ghetto
- Zombification: Density as Destiny
- Second City Resurgent? Waterfront Regeneration in Cork City
- Dun Laoghaire: Social Change in a Historic Town
- Cherrywood – A 21st-century new town in the making
- Urbanising Sandyford Business District: Game On!
Recent Comments
Categories
Blog Stats
- 717,450 hits
Archives
- May 2022
- October 2021
- August 2021
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- June 2019
- April 2019
- February 2019
- June 2018
- May 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
Contributors
Dr. Delphine Ancien, NUIM
Brendan Bartley, NUIM
Prof. Mark Boyle, NUIM
Dr. Proinnsias Breathnach, NUIM
Prof. Mary Corcoran, NUIM
Caroline Creamer, NUIM
Dr. Declan Curran, DCU
Prof. Anna Davies, TCD
Dr. Alistair Fraser, NUIM
Dr. Mary Gilmartin, NUIM
Dr Jane Gray, NUIM
Justin Gleeson, NUIM
Dr. Sinéad Kelly, NUIM
Prof. Rob Kitchin, NUIM
Dr. Philip Lawton, Maastricht University
Dr. Denis Linehan, UCC
Dr. Andrew Maclaran, TCD
Dr. Des McCafferty, Mary Immaculate College, UL
Dr. Niamh Moore, UCD
Dr. Enda Murphy, UCD
Dr. Cian O'Callaghan, NUIM
Dr. Chris Van Egeraat, NUIM
Dr. Cormac Walsh, NUIM
Blogroll
Progressive Economy
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
Ronan Lyons
Irish Economy
Irish Election
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
NUIM Geography’s Eye on the World
TheStory.ie
Geary Institute Blog
Ninth Level Ireland
Stephen Kinsella
Notes on the Front
David McWilliams
Finfacts Ireland Business & Finance Portal
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
ESPON Ireland
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
Calendar
May 2022 M T W T F S S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
-
Follow
Following
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
%d bloggers like this:
February 8, 2011
Three stories: zoning, permissions, and enforcement
Posted by irelandafternama under #Commentaries, News stories | Tags: enforcement, Ireland, permissions, planning, zoning |[9] Comments
Two pieces in the Irish Times today about zoning and planning enforcement; another a couple of days ago in the Examiner about planning permissions. All three raise some questions with regards to the planning system.
Story 1. The Sisters of Charity are up in arms about Dublin City Council’s rezoning of their 108 acres of land in 18 parcels in the city. It has been classed as Z15, which means that if developed it has to have a greater proportion of open space and affordable housing. They are arguing that the 2011-2017 development plan is ‘diverting private property into public ownership and ‘steralising’ its lands without compensation’. They claim the plan is illegal as ‘applies a restrictive zoning to an arbitary selection of lands’. The IT reports that they want the rezoning quashed, a stay put on sections of the plan affecting their property, and ‘damages for alleged breaches of private property and religious freedom rights under the Constitution and European Convention of Human Rights’. It’s the same rezoning that RTE are challenging.
Development from Google Street View
Story 2: The Examiner reports that Athy Town Council have endorsed an application to build 8 additional properties on an estate where ‘residents have lived for three years with unfinished roads, incomplete public lighting and inadequately secured construction sites’. There were 27 objections to the application, with residents concluding that the “Approval of this application is tantamount to endorsing the dangerous and reckless abandonment of site works.” The senior planner for the council concluded on a site visit that: “Any unfinished areas have been fenced off and the site is kept relatively tidy.” One resident notes: “It’s very frustrating. Since we moved in 2007, nothing has been done. I am still looking out on the shells of three unfinished houses, gardens are not maintained, sections of footpath unfinished, the green area out front is without public lighting. It really has been left very shoddily.” Clearly the residents and the planner agree that the existing site is still unfinished and some houses in the earlier phases are still vacant, which begs the question as to why give an endorsement to the next phase?
One of the shop fronts An Taisce objects to
Story 3. An Taisce has accused Dublin City Council of neglecting planning provisions with respect to unauthorised shop fronts and signage, and of failing to take enforcement proceedings against signage erected without permission or which had been refused permission. In particular, they highlight the state of the main thoroughfares to the south of the Liffey – Westmoreland Street, Dame Street, Parliament Street and South Quays – an area of major civic and architectural importance, and a core area for tourists. They argue that these streets are becoming dominated by low-order shops – mostly fast food and convenience stores – which are competing against each other through garish signage. This signage is transforming the look and feel of an important part of the city.
These three stories relate to three core areas of planning: zoning, permissions, and enforcement. They are three snapshots of a regime that is creaking along under old values and practices, that needs a branch and root review and updating for the twenty first century. All political parties are promoting quite radical reform of a political system that is not fit for purpose. It’s time we had a look at what works and doesn’t work in planning in an era when many planning tools are inappropriate or blunt (for example in relation to addressing the problems of unfinished estates) or have not been used in any kind of effective way in a very long time (e.g. enforcement). And we really do need to move from individualism to utilitarianism as a guiding ethos.
Rob Kitchin
Share this:
Like this: