Local Area Planning Guidelines for Public Consultation until 27 July 2012
Published: Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Phil Hogan T.D., Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, with his colleague Ms. Jan O’Sullivan T.D., Minister for Housing and Planning, today Friday 15th June 2012 announced the publication of the Local Area Plans – Guidelines for Planning Authorities for public consultation. “Communities are at the heart of our planning system, and should be integrally involved in planning for the sustainable future of their communities”, Minister Hogan said. “To that end, and to ensure that we practice what we preach, we are publishing this consultation draft of our statutory guidelines to allow stakeholders and the public to comment on the guidelines”. The Ministers advised that following the 6 week consultation process ending on 27th July 2012, a final version of the Guidelines will be prepared for publication under Section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 later this year.
The aim of the guidelines is to support planning authorities in preparing and implementing Local Area Plans that will provide for the sustainable development of communities having regard to realistic assessments of need for future development informed by wider county and city plans and regional planning guidelines. Minister O’Sullivan welcomed the provisions in the new guidelines which implement relevant recommendations of the recent Planning Review as well as correcting the errors of the past identified by the Mahon Tribunal, and in moving towards a stronger, more evidence-based planning system. “The past decade has changed the face of Ireland, of our cities, towns and villages. We need to ensure that, from now on, all our decisions about the country we want to live in will be based on the needs of our communities and will be in line with our national objectives for building a sustainable future. The Guidelines specific exclude the practice of developers proposing Local Area Plans, one of the key recommendations of the recent planning review. In future, collaboration on the development of Local Area Plans will be drive by the community, not one vested interest.”, the Minister said.
The full text is on the DECLG website
The consultation draft of the guidelines are available here and comments should be returned to the Department by 27th July 2012.
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