Dear Sir/Madam,
We act on behalf of Mr. Gerry Gladney, Ballyhendricken, Ballycallan, Co. Kilkenny. On behalf of and on the instructions of our client we hereby make this submission in relation to the Draft Kilkenny County Development Plan 2014-2020 which is currently on display.
Details of Submission
Our submission relates to with the rural housing policies as set out at Section 3.5.2 of the Draft Plan. That section states that “Ribbon Development” is discouraged for a variety of reasons, including road safety, future demand for the provision of public infrastructure and visual impact and defines ribbon development as “5 or more houses on any one side of a given 250 metres of road frontage”. Our client accepts the need for such a policy in the Draft Plan and understands that this policy is in accordance with the Core Strategy, the South-East Regional Planning Guidelines 2010-2022 and departmental guidelines on sustainable rural development. The policy as set out at Section 3.5.2 of the Draft Plan allows the planning authority to have some discretion in the application of the policy in relation to ribbon development to allow well spaced infill ribboning to complete a particular settlement pattern in circumstances where the proposed development would not lead to the coalescence of separate ribbons of development or, in combination with other ribbons, lead to the over proliferation of houses in the immediate area. Our client welcomes the application of discretion by the planning authority but suggest that there are other circumstances where such discretion might be applied. On such circumstance might be:
Where a person who is an intrinsic part of the rural community makes an application for planning permission to develop a single dwelling for their own occupation on family owned lands where the family landholding only has very limited road frontage (e.g. 100 metres or less), the planning authority will have discretion to consider the application, having regard to all relevant development control standards, notwithstanding the fact that there might already be a pattern of ribbon development in the immediate vicinity.
This discretion might only apply in very limited circumstances where:
• The applicant is an intrinsic part of the rural community
• The application if for the development of a single owner occupied dwelling
• The site forms part of the applicant’s family landholding
• The family landholding only has very limited road frontage (e.g. 100 metres or less), which means that the applicant effectively has no choice in the location of the subject site if a site is to be taken form the family landholding
In such circumstance, we also suggest that the applicant might be asked to consent to the sterilisation of the remainder of the landholding form any further residential development.
We contend that such a discretion would only be required in a very limited number of cases but would have the benefit of allowing family members to bring forward proposals in circumstances where they don’t have a choice of road frontage and where a pattern of development has occurred over the years that might otherwise militate against their ability to provide housing for themselves, in their own locality, on family lands where they might wish to reside near other family members or to care for elderly family members.
We trust that you will consider this submission in the context of the County Development Plan review process which is currently underway and we look forward to publication of the Manager’s Report on all of the public submissions received.
Yours sincerely, Liam McGree
