Sir, – Senator Michael McDowell misunderstands the role of the Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) when he claims that we are responsible for thwarting local authorities from zoning sufficient development land to meet housing demand (“State relied on private landlords for years. Now it is turning its guns on them”, Opinion & Analysis, March 22nd).
Government policy is very clear that, first of all, local authorities should ensure their development plans reserve sufficient residentially zoned and serviced land.
Second, that zoned housing land in an existing development plan that is serviced and can be developed for housing within the life of the new development plan should not be subject to dezoning when such plans are being reviewed.
The OPR fully supports these policies.
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To be clear, analysis of development plans will show large swathes of suitable zoned land for housing.
Land which is appropriately located and is consistent with good planning principles, such as proximity to transport and infrastructure which isn’t prone to flooding and respects the environment.
In addition, in the environs of Dublin city alone, there are tens of thousands worth of planning permissions where no sod has been turned.
There are several contributing factors to the current housing situation.
Funding and viability issues are central rather than shortages of suitable zoned land.
We don’t have to look too far back to remember how excessive zoning contributed to ghost estates, incoherent patterns of suburban development and housing built on flood plains.
Following this, the Oireachtas introduced sensible reforms to ensure that the amount of zoned lands in local authority development plans must be in suitable locations, proportionate to infrastructure and services and be consistent with national and regional growth forecasts.
One of the roles of the OPR is simply to ensure that this happens. – Yours, etc,
NIALL CUSSEN,
CEO,
Office of the
Planning Regulator,
Grangegorman,
Dublin 7.