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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- 13 This statement should outline the planning authority’s aims and policies in relation to the local area plan in terms of: function;• scale and population;• future development priorities; and• how environmental and heritage protection factors have influenced the approach.• The statement should be supported by a simple, clear and diagrammatic concept map that illustrates the relationships between the local area plan and the wider spatial context of the development plan. The accompanying best practice guidance document outlines some useful examples in this regard.
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- 15 3 Process for Preparing Local Area Plans
- 16 Key Messages Planning authorities should allow sufficient time (ideally, up to one year), prior• to the commencement of the statutory timeframe for preparing local area plans, to enable assembly of the key data and information necessary to facilitate the process. The detailed stages of plan preparation outlined in planning legislation should be• closely observed. Planning authorities should pay close attention to integrating environmental and• heritage considerations, including the requirements of relevant EU Directives, especially the Birds and Habitats Directives, into the process of preparing local area plans. It is recommended that planning authorities appoint a senior officer to project• manage the initiation and delivery of each local area plan through its various stages. 3.1 Key Phases There are two key phases in the process of making a local area plan: A non-statutory• background data gathering process, where data and information (evidence) essential to preparing the local area plan is assembled including information on population, employment, economic development, physical and social infrastructure, heritage, flood risk assessment etc.; and The• statutory process – as set out in the legislation with its various elements of statutory notices, issues papers, draft, amended draft and final documents. Although there may be some degree of overlap between the processes above, a key message of this document is that planning authorities should allow sufficient time prior to the statutory processes to gather and evaluate the essential background information. In addition, effective community involvement in gathering such data can help planning authorities minimise the administrative burden involved. 3.2 Preparing for the Local Area Plan Review Process Although there is no statutory period for the background data gathering phase of the local area plan, good practice experience suggests that local authorities should set aside sufficient time before the statutory process commences to gather background data. The time required will vary between plans depending on their complexity but in the case of more complex local area plans, it would be prudent that preparations commence at least one year from the date the planning authority intends to put a draft local area plan on display. Process for Preparing Local Area Plans 3
- 17 Timely Consultation with Community and Key Stakeholder Interests Planning authorities should also use the pre-draft stage of the plan preparation process to build consensus around the core aims of the plan using the legislative mechanisms particularly those under Sections 18(6) and 20(1) and where appropriate 20(2) of the Act. Meaningful engagement with the public and as many as possible stakeholder bodies on the critical issues to be addressed in the plan should be explored by the time the first formal draft of the plan is prepared. Consultation is dealt with in more detail in Section 4 of these Guidelines. A 12-month period is also advisable to enable planning authorities to pre-consult with all statutory agencies and bodies and to secure, to the maximum extent possible, a shared understanding in relation to the provision of the relevant infrastructure. The Statutory Process The statutory local area plan process takes a minimum of approximately 18 weeks to complete, from the date on which the draft plan is placed on public display up to a maximum of 35 weeks allowing for amendments to a draft local area plan. The key milestones of the local area plan making process from the Act are summarised below. Serving of the initial public notice1. under Section 20(3)(a)(i) that the planning authority intends to make, amend or revoke a local area plan to statutory consultees and the wider public and stating that the copy of the draft local area plan may be inspected for a period not less than 6 weeks; The Manager’s report2. under Section 20(3)(c)(i) to the members on the list of submissions3, their broad content and appropriate recommendations within 12 weeks of the notice above; then following consideration of the report either: The making, amending or revoking of the draft local area plan in accordance3. with the recommendations of the Manager (in which case the plan is deemed to have been made/amended/revoked 6 weeks after the furnishing of the managers report); or The making, amending or revoking of the plan otherwise than as recommended4. by the Manager; or not making, amending or revoking the plan. 5. Following consideration of the Manager’s report, the members may decide to alter a draft local area plan. If so, the planning authority has 3 weeks to publish notice of such alteration and any determinations under relevant EU Directives, subject to the manager considering within 2 weeks of the members resolution whether the 3-week period above may need to be extended to facilitate consideration of any requirements arising from the alteration in relation to Strategic Environmental Assessment and Appropriate Assessment. However, it is important to note that the local area plan cannot proceed where an Appropriate Assessment carried out under Article 6 of the Habitats Directive finds that there is the potential for a significant adverse impact on the integrity of a Natura 2000 site, or there is reasonable doubt about the potential for such an impact. 3 In the case of a planning authority within the Greater Dublin Area, the report must summarise any issues raised by the National Transport Authority and outline appropriate recommendations.
- 18 Public display of the proposed materially-altered draft local area plan6. then follows for a period of not less than 4 weeks. 7. A second Manager’s report is then prepared, within 8 weeks of the date of publication of the proposed amended draft local area plan on any submissions received over the display period of those proposed amendments, which report must list the submissions made, summarise the issued raised and make appropriate recommendations; The making/amending of the materially-altered draft local area plan8. with all, some, or none of the material amendments published must then be considered by the members within 6 weeks of the submission of the Manager’s report to the members, subject to the provision under Section 20(3)(o) that where the planning authority decides to make or amend the local area plan or change a material alteration, then; 9. In finalising the materially-altered draft local area plan, not less than half of the members of the planning authority must pass the relevant resolution and any further modification to a material amendment can only be for a minor issue and not one that would: have significant effects on the environment;- adversely affect the integrity of a European site;- increase the area zoned for any particular purpose; andadd to or delete from the record of protected structures.- In performing all of the functions above, the members of the planning authority are restricted to considering the proper planning and sustainable development of the area, statutory obligations and any relevant policies or objectives of the Government or of any Minister. A local area plan then has effect 4 weeks from a decision under (9) above and planning authorities must send a copy of the local area plan as made to statutory consultees. Figure 1 summarises the key stages and timelines in preparing a local area plan. Local Area Plans, SEA and AA Requirements The 2004 SEA Regulations4 were amended by the European Communities (Environmental Assessment of Certain Plans and Programmes) (Amendment) Regulations 2011 (S.I. No. 200 of 2011) and the Planning and Development (Strategic Environmental Assessment) (Amendment) Regulations 2011 (S.I. No. 201 of 2011), the latter of which applies to land use plans, including local area plans. A notable amendment to these regulations which impacts on local area plans is the reduction in the threshold for mandatory SEA from a population of 10,000 to 5,000 or where the area covered by the plan is greater than 50 square kilometres, or where the local area plan is being prepared for a town and its wider environs. This brings the thresholds more in line with measures introduced in the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2010. 4 The European Communities (Environmental Assessment of Certain Plans and Programmes) Regulations 2004 (S.I. No. 435 of 2004) and the Planning and Development (Strategic Environmental Assessment) Regulations 2004 (S.I. No. 436 of 2004).
- 19 Figure 1 – Key Stages & Timelines in preparation of Local Area Plans
- 20 There is also a requirement for the making of a determination, or in other words, screening as to the need for an SEA of a local area plan with a population or target population under 5,000 persons or where the area covered by the local area plan is less than 50 square kilometres. Section 57 of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2010 outlines important obligations for planning authorities in preparing and making local area plans under the EU Birds and Habitats Directives. It is critical that a local area plan includes appropriate policies and objectives for the conservation, and protection of European sites and to ensure that their integrity will not be adversely affected by the implementation of the plan or development5. The plan should also have appropriate policies and objectives for the conservation and protection of national sites (Natural heritage Areas, National Parks, Nature Reserves) ecological corridors and stepping stones (Article 10 Habitats Directive) and strictly protected (Annex IV, Habitats Directive) species and other protected species. Screening is an essential requirement in ascertaining the fit between a plan and the obligations above. The hierarchy of land-use plans means that the level of detail required in the screening process will vary considerably between the different levels of plans in the planning hierarchy. Consequently, in moving down the hierarchy of land use plans from the regional planning guidelines to development plans and then to local area plans, the level of detail required in screening will become greater. For example, local area plans will indicate the location of any relevant European sites. Then the site synopsis will give an indication of the sites conservation objective(s) and this will alert planning staff and the general public to both the Natura 2000 site location and the ‘precautionary’ areas outside the site where development will have to be carefully screened and managed to ensure that there are no significant effects that would adversely affect the Natura 2000 site.6 3.3 Project Management Given the practical and procedural complexities of preparing a local area plan, planning authorities should nominate a senior professional planning officer to take charge of the project management aspects of the survey and analysis, drafting and completion stages. 5 Under Section 10(2)(c) of the Planning and Development Act 2000, planning authorities should ensure that policies and objectives are appropriately worded to ensure the preservation of certain places and sites of ecological interest, the inclusion of such objectives having the effect of de-exempting certain previously exempted developments (see also Article 6 and Article 9(1)(vii) of the Planning and Development Regulations 2001). 6 Current practice has indicated that a 15km area around the Natura site could in the first instance be considered the ‘precautionary’ area but this will have to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis for each Natura site as in other instances, the site synopsis may have indicated that the ecology of the site is dependent on a clean water source up stream, so that the ‘precautionary’ area is not around the site but upstream of the site.
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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.