Development Management: Guidelines for Planning Authorities

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   13Planning Guidelines Development Management Guidelines for Planning Authorities June, 2007

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   Minister’s Foreword I would like to thank sincerely the more than 80 organisations and individuals who made submissions on the Draft Development Management Guidelines. Many of the submissions were broadly supportive of the draft guidelines. Indeed many of the suggestions have been included in and have “added value” to the finalised guidelines. The Guidelines reflect the changes in the planning environment that have taken place in Ireland over the past 25 years with a shift in emphasis from Development Control to a more pro-active focus on Development Management. At the launch of the draft guidelines I referred to a new approach to planning that required the ambitious implementation by planning authorities of the positive vision for their areas set out in the development plan and the adoption by all of a pro-active approach towards development proposals which help achieve plan objectives. I encouraged everyone working within the planning system to adopt the positive Management Development term and the attitude it reflects. The planning system in Ireland continues to face unique challenges and demands at this time. The planning process has to mediate the country’s unprecedented economic development. It is predicted that Ireland’s population will reach 5 million by 2020. That’s almost an extra million people requiring housing, schools, hospitals, roads, etc. It is clear that planning authorities will have to be in a position to plan for this sustained growth in order to be able to meet these demands. In this context, I am particularly pleased that Guidelines on Development Plans are also being published in parallel with these Guidelines. It is right that we have higher expectations of planning authorities. We expect that they will support economic growth and a better quality of life for all. We also expect them to put sustainable development and the delivery of sustainable communities with good local services, at the core of our planning process. At an individual level, applicants for planning permission also expect that the planning process will be responsive and customer orientated. These Guidelines are intended to help planning authorities meet these expectations, both by setting out what is required and by sharing the good practices, which are being applied in local authorities across the country. 1

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   There is much in these Guidelines that is challenging for those who work in the planning system and who manage that system. However, I believe that we can overcome these challenges by further developing a customer orientation, and continuing to build capacity in the planning system over the coming years. Dick Roche T.D. Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government 2

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   Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Guidelines under the Planning and Development Acts 2000- 2006 1.2 Purpose of the Guidelines 1.3 Achieving quality in the environment 1.4 Importance of the development management process 1.5 Best practice in development management 1.6 Role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) 1.7 Layout of the Guidelines Chapter 2 Pre-Application Consultation 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Making information available to potential applicants 2.3 Pre-application consultation: general 2.4 Benefits of pre-application consultation 2.5 Section 247 consultations 2.6 Submission of details in advance of consultations 2.7 Pre-application meetings: who should attend? 2.8 How should a pre-application meeting be structured? 2.9 Keeping a record of what was discussed 2.10 Part V consultations 2.11 Pre-auction consultations Chapter 3 Lodgement and Validation of a Planning Application 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Information required in making a planning application 3.3 Statutory validation requirements 3.4 Purpose of public notices 3

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   3.5 Newspaper notice 3.6 Site notice 3.7 Planning application form 3.8 Application documentation 3.9 Fees 3.10 Validation 3.11 Dealing with invalid applications 3.12 Managing the validation process 3.13 Applications involving protected structures or proposed protected structures. Chapter 4 Environmental Impact Assessment 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Environmental Protection Agency guidance 4.3 Lodging a planning application with EIS and procedures for dealing with such applications 4.4 Above threshold and sub-threshold developments 4.5 Scoping 4.6 Quality of EISs 4.7 Mitigation measures 4.8 EIA application time limits 4.9 Transboundary environmental impacts 4.10 Local authority development and EIA Chapter 5 Processing a Planning Application 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Notification of prescribed bodies 5.3 Making the application available to the public 5.4 Internal circulation of files 4

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   5.5 Dealing with prescribed body and third party submissions 5.6 Processing major/complex planning applications 5.7 Requests for further information (Article 33) 5.8 Revised plans/modified plans (Article 34) 5.9 Significant additional data (Article 35) 5.10 Unsolicited further information 5.11 Time extensions 5.12 Material contravention applications 5.13 Issues relating to title to land 5.14 Section 140 motions (Local Government Act 2001) 5.15 Use of external consultants to process planning applications 5.16 Use of ICTs in processing applications Chapter 6 Making Recommendations on a Planning Application 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Planning reports 6.3 Structure and content of planning reports 6.4 Planning reports – importance of a balanced approach 6.5 Submissions and observations 6.6 Environmental Impact Assessment 6.7 Consistency 6.8 The planning decision 6.9 Decisions that differ from the planning report 6.10 Notification of planning decisions 6.11 Documents to be made available to the public after the decision has been made 5

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   Chapter 7 Drafting Planning Conditions/Reasons for Refusal 7.1 Introduction: planning conditions 7.2 Standard conditions 7.3 Basic criteria for conditions 7.4 Time limits 7.5 Temporary permissions 7.6 Conditions relating to occupation of buildings 7.7 Conditions directly departing from the application 7.8 Conditions relating to other codes 7.9 Conditions requiring matters to be agreed 7.10 When are compliance conditions appropriate? 7.11 Conditions requiring the ceding of land 7.12 Conditions requiring development contributions (sections 48 and 49 of the Planning Act) 7.13 Residential development 7.14 Reasons for refusal of planning permission 7.15 Refusals arising from development plans or local area plans 7.16 Non-compensatable reasons 7.17 Environmental Protection Agency licensable activities Chapter 8 Planning Appeals 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Who may appeal? 8.3 The period for making an appeal 8.4 Appeal Procedure 8.5 Notification 8.6 Forwarding relevant documents to the Board 8.7 Documents to be made available to the public 6

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   8.8 Written submissions by the planning authority 8.9 Requests for additional information/further submissions or observations 8.10 Oral hearings 8.11 Appeals against conditions 8.12 Contribution conditions 8.13 Prohibition of an identical application 8.14 Appeal decisions 8.15 Website Chapter 9 Declarations and Referrals 9.1 Declarations: introduction 9.2 Information to be provided with a request for a declaration 9.3 Time period for making declarations 9.4 Preparing recommendations on declarations 9.5 Availability of relevant documents 9.6 Referrals to the Board under section 5 9.7 Who can make a referral to the Board under section 5? 9.8 Referral procedure 9.9 Forwarding of relevant documents to the Board 9.10 Decisions by the Board 9.11 Other referrals 9.12 Oral hearings Chapter 10 Enforcement of Planning Control 10.1 Enforcement: general 10.2 Statutory obligations 10.3 Best practice/principles of good enforcement 7

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   10.4 Past failures to comply with planning permissions 8

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    Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Guidelines under the Planning and Development Acts 2000-2006 These Guidelines are issued by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government under section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. Planning authorities, and, where applicable, An Bord Pleanála (“the Board”) must have regard to guidelines issued under section 28 in the performance of their functions under the Planning Act. The Guidelines replace the former “yellow book” Development Control Advice and Guidelines issued in 1982; some of the advice contained in that document is still valid however and has been incorporated into these guidelines where appropriate. The Guidelines are intended to assist both the technical and administrative staffs of planning authorities, not only in adhering to the requirements of the Planning Acts and Regulations, but also in providing a high quality of service to users of the planning process. It is hoped that the Guidelines will also be of practical value to applicants, agents and the wider public who interact with the planning process. The Planning and Development Acts 2000 to 2006 are generally referred to throughout as “the Planning Act” or “the Act”, as appropriate, while the Planning and Development Regulations 2001 to 2007 are referred to as “the Planning Regulations” or “the Regulations”. An unofficial consolidation of the Planning Acts 2000-2006 is available on the Department’s website at www.environ.ie. 1.2 Purpose of the Guidelines These guidelines are intended to promote best practice at every stage in the development management process. The term “development management” is preferred to “development control” because it implies a more positive role for the planning system. It is the purpose of the planning system to promote proper planning and sustainable development, rather than merely to control undesirable forms of development. The guidelines seek to build on a culture within the planning service which is positive, responsive and promotes high standards. If this is to be achieved, it is vital that the process of development management is driven by an ambition to implement a positive vision for the area as set out in the development plan; planning authorities are required by the Planning Act to take all necessary steps to secure the objectives of the plan1. This means that planning authorities should adopt a pro-active approach towards development proposals that help achieve plan objectives. The role of pre-application discussions (see Chapter 2) is of particular 1 Section 15(1) of the 2000 Act 9

Source Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government: Development Management: Guidelines for Planning Authorities (June 2007) · Licence the publisher's termsText read from the publisher’s PDF; tables, maps and drawings do not survive as text, and page numbers are the PDF’s (its first page is 1). Check the original before relying on a passage.