Ministerial guidelines
Local Area Plans: Guidelines for Planning Authorities
How a council prepares a local area plan for a town or district.
Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government · June 2013 · 64 pages
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- Local Area Plans Guidelines for Planning Authorities Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government June 2013Planning Guidelines23
No text on this page — it is probably a drawing, a map, a photograph or a scanned page. See it in the PDF.
No text on this page — it is probably a drawing, a map, a photograph or a scanned page. See it in the PDF.
No text on this page — it is probably a drawing, a map, a photograph or a scanned page. See it in the PDF.
- Page 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Role and Purpose of Local Area Plans 2 1.2 Aims of the Guidelines 3 1.3 Status of the Guidelines 4 2. Local Area Plans: Legislative and Policy Requirements 7 2.1 General 8 2.2 General Content 10 2.3 Local Area Plans and Implementation of Other Planning Guidelines 12 2.4 Local Area Plans and Higher-Level Plans and Strategies 12 3. Process for Preparing Local Area Plans 15 3.1 Key Phases 16 3.2 Preparing for the Local Area Plan Review Process 16 3.3 Project Management 20 4. Consultation and Consensus 23 4.1 Consulting with Communities and Stakeholders 24 4.2 Consultation with Children and Young People 26 4.3 Statutory Consultees 27 5. Structure and Content of Local Area Plans 29 5.1 Key Policies for Future Local Area Plans 30 5.2 Focusing on the Needs of Local Communities 31 5.3 Promoting Local Economic Development and Employment 32 5.4 Integrating Environmental Considerations in Local Area Planning 33 5.5 Providing for Schools 35 5.6 Achieving Smarter Travel 36 5.7 Achieving Quality in Urban Design 38 5.8 People-Friendly Urban Design 39 5.9 Key Local Area Plan Strategies 39 5.10 Presentation 40 6. Delivering Local Area Plans 43 6.1 Local Area Plans and Infrastructure Provision 44 6.2 Phasing of Development 44 6.3 Provision of Social and Community Infrastructure 47 6.4 Lessons for Local Area Plan’s from Strategic Development Zones 47 6.5 Monitoring Systems 49 Appendix 51 Table of Contents
- Ministers’ Foreword Planning is fundamentally about people and places, about the communities we live in and their futures. In planning for all our futures we have to consider the whole country, its physical infrastructure and our social and economic aspirations, while also striving to meet and address local issues and needs through the alignment of local area planning with city and country development plans, regional planning guidelines and national planning objectives. Accordingly, these Guidelines have been developed in recognition of the importance of good planning practices for local communities, their place in the wider planning context, and of the importance of those communities’ involvement in the planning process. Undoubtedly, Ireland has seen significant changes over the past decade, some positive and some less so. The recent and significant slow down in development activity offers us an important opportunity to review and renew our approach to the planning and development of our communities. A key element of this process of review and renewal, and the process also of responding to the findings of the Mahon Tribunal, is the return to focusing on settlements and place, rather than just development. In this, it is critical that the planning system takes a holistic approach which considers the needs – current and future - of the community when preparing a local area plan. We need to consolidate the development of our cities, towns and villages rather than simply expanding them for expansion sake. We need to plan for communities, not for profit. And we need to ensure that sustainability is at the heart of all our decisions as we strive to build communities, where people want to live, work and enjoy a good quality of life, now and into the future. The publication of these Guidelines is particularly timely, as city and county development plans have been revising their development plans to include core strategies. Planning authorities are now required to assess the consistency of existing local area plans with the core strategies and to review them where necessary, with a view to aligning local planning with strategic city and county development objectives. We believe that this holistic approach will lead to a better and more coherent approach to planning across the country. The core strategy approach provides a much improved evidence base for preparing local area plans while co-ordinating planning between different local area plans.
- At the heart of these guidelines is a recognition that effective consultation and consensus building is critical for the development of successful local area plans, and in that context, we wish to thank the members of the public and the various stakeholders who have made valuable contributions through well considered submissions which have been carefully considered in finalising these Guidelines. It is our wish, desire and belief that the next generation of local area plans will be greatly enhanced, and by extension the lives of people living in these communities, by the principles underpinning these Guidelines. The contribution of the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to the preparation of these Guidelines, and the accompanying nonstatutory best practice manual, is also noted and appreciated. Mr. Phil Hogan T.D. Ms Jan O’Sullivan, T.D. Minister for the Environment, Minister of State for Community and Local Government Housing and Planning
No text on this page — it is probably a drawing, a map, a photograph or a scanned page. See it in the PDF.
No text on this page — it is probably a drawing, a map, a photograph or a scanned page. See it in the PDF.
- 2 Key Messages These guidelines disseminate best practice on local area plans.• Local area plans are intended to provide more detailed planning policies for areas• that are expected to experience significant development and change, through proper public participation and democratic oversight. Local area plans must focus on delivering quality outcomes for local communities• informed by effective participation by those communities in preparing the local plan and the wider planning policy context. Local area plans are also important policy instruments in securing rejuvenation• of city and town centres and protection of environmental qualities, including biodiversity. The local area plan must identify the mechanisms that will secure the• implementation of the necessary physical, social and environmental infrastructure required to achieve the objectives of the plan. 1.1 Role and Purpose of Local Area Plans The Planning and Development Act 2000-2012, (hereafter referred to as ‘the Act’) introduced a more plan-led system aimed at ensuring proper planning and sustainable development of land through a hierarchy of inter-related and complementary plans and policies at national, regional and local levels. The 2000 Act introduced, inter alia, the concept of local area plans within the framework of higher-level plans (such as Regional Planning Guidelines and City and County Development Plans) local area plans provide more detailed planning policies for areas where significant development and change is anticipated, without having to prepare very detailed local planning policies and objectives for many specific areas within city and county development plans. Within the context of proposed reforms of local government under the “Putting People First - Action Programme for Effective Local Government” document in relation to the establishment of new Municipal Districts, the local area plan process is particularly adaptable to planning at local level for either urban areas or wider urban and rural areas. Statutory local area plans provide for proper consultation with the public and statutory consultees, and are subject to approval by elected members and together with the Development Plan, establish a key element of the policy context for making decisions on planning applications and appeals. Beyond statutory plans, documents such as village design statements, environmental improvement plans or individual site development briefs may be drawn up, as long as they are consistent with the parameters laid down by statutory plans, to guide specific development proposals. The Act and subsequent amendments in 2002 led to a rapid increase in the number of local area plans and in the levels of land zoned for development within such plans. This made co-ordination of development with the provision of necessary public infrastructure and implementation of strategic planning policies such as the National Spatial Strategy and Regional Planning Guidelines more difficult. Accordingly, the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2010 introduced important new legal Introduction 1
Source Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government: Local Area Plans: Guidelines for Planning Authorities (June 2013) · 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.