The Minister for State at the Department Of Housing and Local Government has issued a final direction for Clare’s County Development Plan.
The Directive has ordered the local authority to rezone a total of twenty subject lands including fifteen previously designated for Residential use.
On the 18th of April, Minister of State, Kieran O’Donnell criticised Clare County Council for the excessive zoning of land for housing use in the County Development Plan.
The Fine Gael Deputy then intervened to issue a draft direction contending that the County Development Plan for 2023 to 2029, approved at a special meeting of elected representatives in March, did not comply with the requirements of the Planning and Development Act.
Clare County Council subsequently received 25 submissions from various stakeholders including Transport Infrastructure Ireland, Uisce Eireann, Councillors and members of the public in relation to the draft direction.
However, Minister O’Donnell has upheld all prior recommendations made by the Office of the Planning Regulator in relation to the County Development Plan.
The ministerial notice, published last week, has directed that lands in Kilrush revert to ‘unzoned white lands’ from Residential, while the R6 zone in Killaloe has been ordered to revert to Tourism use.
Plots in Mullagh, Liscannor and Broadford have been directed to revert to Agricultural zones.
Further lands in Broadford, Cooraclare and Ballynacally , have been ordered to divert from zones of low residential development to be zoned for mixed use development, village growth areas and for existing residential use, while a portion of land in Ennis is to be rezoned as open space.
The Minister has also ordered the local authority to delete the subsection of the County Development Plan which catered for existing accesses onto National Secondary Roads under exceptional circumstances, citing that the provision is not consistent with the National Strategic Outcome of the National Planning Framework (NPF) for enhanced regional accessibility.
The Direction states that the adopted Development Plan “includes material amendments to the draft Development Plan which zone additional residential lands in excess of what is required for Co Clare as set out in the Core Strategy.
The direction claims that the plan is inconsistent with national policy to promote the proportionate growth of settlements.
The notice also states that the Development Plan has zoned land for use within areas that are vulnerable or highly vulnerable to flood risk and lands that have not passed the plan making justification test.
