Sir, – The pre-draft Dublin City Development Plan 2016 – 2022, circulated to Dublin City Council's elected members for consideration, is not currently a public document. The council wishes to clarify some aspects of the editorial (July 30th) with regard to the details contained in the proposed draft document.
The key objective in the proposed plan relates to the need to address the current and future housing requirements of Dublin city, estimated to be around 30,000 housing units over the period of the plan. To address an expected 10 per cent rise in population of Dublin by 2022 and resulting housing demand levels, adjustments need to be made to current residential design specifications. Dublin City Council wishes to facilitate this without compromising on quality or space.
There is no change proposed to existing standards in relation to minimum floor area, no change to the existing floor to ceiling height and no change to existing balcony sizes or storage space.
Key adjustments proposed include increasing the percentage of one-bedroom units from 20 per cent to 30 per cent to reflect the growth in smaller household sizes. A new “studio” apartment size of 45 square metres is proposed that will apply to private rented managed schemes (not for sale) exceeding 100 units. This could result in a very small proportion, a maximum of 7per cent, of future new builds being studio apartments for this sector. In addition, in order to address upper floor vacancy, a 45 square metres floor area may be permitted for one-bed units in the refurbishment of existing older buildings in the inner city.
Requirements for dual aspect may be lowered to 50 per cent from 85 per cent to achieve the six units per core per floor objective so as to address existing design constraints on achieving and providing for sustainable densities. These adjustments are intended to support the provision of the additional 4,200 units Dublin will require every year for the next seven years to satisfy the demands of its growing population. To put this into context, only 900 housing units were built in 2014.
Council members will now consider this draft document on September 16th, 2015. The draft will then go on public display for 10 weeks and members of the public will be invited to make submissions that will inform the content of the final plan. – Yours, etc,
JIM KEOGAN,
Assistant Chief Executive,
Dublin City Council,
Civic Offices,
Wood Quay,
Dublin 8.
Sir, – The egalitarian Danes feel a need for 137 square metres for their apartments, though the thrifty Germans manage with 110 square metres.
The supposedly cramped Japanese have 132 square metres, while Australians could play indoor cricket in their 243 square metre properties.
Tiddlywinks might just be possible in Dublin County Council’s proposed 45 square metre apartments. – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN DOHERTY,
Vienna.
Sir. – The implied solution to the housing crisis is to build cheap and fast, ie accept poor standards. Before this madness gains further ground will the councillors please reflect on the appalling quality of homes that the National Building Agency accepted for local authorities in the 1960s? The political expediency of the time ensured that these inferior structures compounded the social exclusion issues that these residents were hoping to escape. – Yours, etc,
D O’SHEA,
Cork.