Enough land is zoned for housing in county
TRANSPORT NETWORKS AND WATER CRISIS PRIORITIES
Related Articles
COUNTY management have told councillors that there is more than enough land zoned in the county already to satisfy Fingal's housing needs over the next six years.
But the county is not 'overzoned', according to the county's head of planning, Gilbert Power, who said that the land zoned for housing in the county is strategically well placed. Mr Power was making his comments as an intensive period of meetings to put together the next draft of the new County Development Plan got under way.
In the life of the next County Development Plan (2011-2016), Fingal's planners estimate the need for about 20,481 new housing units. Under the current plan, there is enough undeveloped zoned land to provide more than 47,000 new units making large new zonings in the new plan unlikely.
That will be in sharp contrast to the development of the current plan five years ago where huge tracts of land were rezoned for residential use to respond to a growing demand for housing in the county at the time. Mr Power said that the priority this time around was not rezoning for housing but addressing the needs in terms of services to existing residentially zoned lands.
A water supply crisis and improving transport networks around these lands are a priority for the council in the development of a new plan, he said. . Mr Power told councillors: 'We have sufficient land zoned. It is now servicing that land that is the critical issue.'
Despite the available lands having a capacity far beyond the predicted housing need in the county over the next six years or so, Mr Power said the county was not 'overzoned'.
He said: 'I've avoided using the word overzoned – I don't believe that expression applies to ourselves.' The head of planning in Fingal said where land was zoned for housing it was generally 'strategically in the right place' and while the pace of development on those lands will be slower than first envisaged, demand would be there over time to make those zonings worthwhile.
- John MANNING
