Council dezoning complies with department guidelines

Clare County Council has de-zoned 4,940 acres of land for various development purposes, it has emerged this week.
The council has confirmed that 2,000 hectares of development land was de-zoned by county councillors in the 2011 to 2017 Clare County Development Plan following issues raised about the amount of zoning by the Department of the Environment.
Senior planner Gordon Daly explained most of this land was designated as ‘Other Settlement Land’ under a new category, which wasn’t used by most planning authorities.
The objective of this category was to “conserve and enhance the quality and character of the area, to protect residential amenity and allow for development that is appropriate to the sustainable growth of the settlement”.
Community, enterprise, commercial residential and other developments could be considered under this category.
A recent review of Ireland’s planning system by An Taisce found Clare was the most over-zoned county in the country in 2011, with 3,208 hectares zoned for development allowing for an overall additional population of 273,000.
This was followed by County Cork, with 2,500 hectares and Donegal, with 2,250 hectares.
Mr Daly pointed out the perception that all of  ‘Other Settlement Land’ would be used for residential purposes only was not correct.
“Just because an area is zoned doesn’t mean that any type of development will be permitted.
“Any proposed development still has to go through the planning application process.
“Strict controls were adhered to by the planning authority from 2005 to 2011, which is evidenced by the fact that Clare towns and villages were not overdeveloped during this period.
“Clare also has a relatively low level of unfinished housing developments, compared to some counties.
“Clare was one of the first counties to adopt a core strategy in compliance with the recommendation from the Department of the Environment in 2010, which was done by February 2011 in the new County Development Plan.
“Councillors took the hard decisions and have de-zoned land in North Clare, East Clare and West Clare and this will be done shortly in the new South Clare Plan. The issue of overzoning has been addressed.
“The An Taisce Report provides historical rather than current information,” he said.
It seems the environmental watchdog based its analysis on the overall planning statistics provided by Clare County Council to the Department of the Environment, which didn’t make the distinction concerning ‘Other Settlement Land’.
Over 3,700 acres of land previously zoned in the Ennis and Environs area was categorised as ‘Other Settlement Land’ out of a total of about 4,500 acres.
Mr Daly explained there was no expectation that all of this land would be used for residential purposes or would be built on.
Following another rezoning decision, there is now about 200 acres of land available within Ennis for residential development, which includes a small percentage of other settlement land in the new Ennis and Environs Development Plan.
The Department of the Environment has also introduced new legislation to ensure that land is zoned to meet specific population targets by a particular year and doesn’t allow multiple zonings for same.