Eighteen months after first declaring that it would take an initiative to promote higher housing densities, the Department of the Environment has finally appointed consultants to draft planning guidelines on the issue - and given them just 12 weeks to report back.
After competitive interviews with several groups, this sought-after commission has been awarded to Feargal MacCabe, the planning consultant who made a major input into the Bacon report on house prices, in partnership with architects McCrossan O'Rourke and chartered surveyors Jones Lang Wooton.
Announcing the appointment last week, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, said the purpose of the study is to assess the provisions currently applied by local authorities to residential density and to examine the need for higher density in appropriate locations - such as areas close to public transport routes.
It is also part of the consultants' brief to consider the safeguards required in promoting greater residential density generally and, in particular, to ensure that it does not result in an "unacceptable amenity cost" to the existing houses in any neighbourhood or to the residents of a proposed higher-density housing scheme.
Noting that the preparation of these guidelines is part of the package of measures announced following publication of the Bacon report last April, Mr Dempsey said it was an important initiative, "all the more so when we consider the pressures that exist at present in relation to the supply of land for housing development".
It is anticipated that the consultants will be taking a close look at the draft development plans prepared by local authorities, particularly in the greater Dublin area, and whether these plans have taken on board the Department's message on residential density.
If not, it is likely that they will have to be amended.
Local authority development plans contain a number of provisions that have an impact on residential density - not just the number of housing units permitted per acre, but also in laying down car-parking standards, minimum lengths for front and back gardens and also provisions for a minimum area of public open space.
The consultants have also been asked to examine the need for higher densities on "brownfield" sites, such as the Dublin Docklands area, and in proximity to town centres and public transport nodes, as well as relevant international experience of promoting similar development and the planning measures applied there.
Their principal task is to draw up planning guidelines, including design measures to ensure a "good quality living environment", illustrated by appropriate graphics.
These draft guidelines are expected to be published early in 1999, according to the Minister, and will then be the subject of "full public consultation."
The whole issue of higher housing density has been thrashed out by a joint working party representing the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland and the Irish Planning Institute in recent months, and its conclusions are to be unveiled at a major conference in Dublin next month, entitled "The Housing Crisis".
The theme of the conference, on November 19th, is "quality through design and efficient use of urban land in future housing development" and it will include a focus on how the density issue is being tackled in the Netherlands, the UK and the US.
Further information from Kathryn Meghan of the RIAI, at (01) 676 1703.
