A consortium of developers who are prepared to spend more than €156 million to put in infrastructure necessary to construct over 6,000 new homes on the northside of Drogheda may be exempt from paying the local authority development levies.
The 254-hectare landbank is subject to development as laid down in the Drogheda North Environs masterplan, drawn up by Louth County Council.
The key piece of infrastructure that the developers intend to fund is the Port Access Route, which will link the M1 motorway with Drogheda Port and provide access to the lands. The plan allows for the town's population to grow by 20,000 in phases over the next 15 years.
At this month's meeting of Louth County Council, a development contribution scheme for the plan was adopted and it was revealed the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) and environmental impact statement (EIS) for the road should be published in the coming weeks.
In a presentation to the meeting, the council's senior planner, Gerry Duffy, said the contributions scheme adopted was the legal framework that would provide funding for the public infrastructure and facilities in the plan.
In addition to the road, the scheme would also fund the upgrade of access roads, the waste water treatment plant and parks.
The residential zoning will allow for an estimated 6,257 units, of which 5,006 will be levied at a rate of €24,344 each. The commercial levy will be €64.14 per square metre.
The legal agreement between the parties has yet to be finalised, but it is expected that it will allow for those who finance the infrastructure upfront to be fully exempted from the development levies.
However, this will only apply to the group involved in providing the financing and those landowners or developers who do not contribute towards it will pay the levies to the county council as normal.
Mr Duffy explained that normally, the local authority has to provide public infrastructure such as water and waste water treatment systems.
The masterplan states that the road will have to be built first and the CPO and EIS draft reports on it are expected to be published by July.