Ministerial guidelines
Spatial Planning and National Roads: Guidelines for Planning Authorities
New entrances onto national roads, and development that affects them.
Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government · January 2012 · 41 pages
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- Spatial Planning and National Roads21 Guidelines for Planning Authorities January 2012 Environment, Community and Local Government Comhshaol, Pobal agus Rialtas Áitiúil
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- Contents Section Page No Ministers’ Foreword iii Chapter 1: Introduction 1 1.1 Purpose of the Guidelines 1 1.2 Status of the Guidelines 2 1.3 Functions of National Roads 2 1.4 Strategic Traffic 3 1.5 Key Principles 4 1.6 Regional and Local Roads 5 Chapter 2. Development Planning and Roads 7 2.1 Role of the Development Plan 7 2.2 Preparing Plans – Consultation 8 2.3 General content of Development Plans 9 2.4 Approach to Plan Preparation 11 2.5 Required Development Plan Policy on 12 Access to National Roads 2.6 Exceptional Circumstances 13 2.7 Development at National Road Interchanges 15 or Junctions 2.8 Service Areas 16 2.9 Protection of Alignments for 18 Future National Road Projects 2.10 Providing for Public Transport 20 2.11 Development Plans, Local Area Plans 21 and Speed Limits 2.12 Development Management Standards 21 2.13 Land Use and Transportation Planning Checklist 22 Spatial Planning and National Roads i
- Chapter 3. Development Management and Roads 25 3.1 Development Management is the 25 Key to Plan Implementation 3.2 Development Applications and National Roads 25 3.3 Development Standards 27 3.4 Traffic and Transport Assessment (TTA) 27 3.5 Demand Management 29 3.6 Road Safety Audits 29 3.7 Avoiding Adverse Impacts from Existing and Future Roads 29 3.8 Signage 30 3.9 Development Contributions 31 Chapter 4. Implementation 33 4.1 Introduction 33 4.2 Government Departments 33 4.3 National Transport Authority (NTA) and the National Roads Authority (NRA) 33 4.4 Planning Authorities and An Bord Pleanála 33 4.5 Applicants and Agents 34 ii
- Ministers’ Foreword Ireland’s national roads network has been transformed in recent years as a result of sustained high levels of investment on behalf of the taxpayer. The benefits of such investment have become clearly evident around the country in terms of reducing travel times, improving road safety, offering sustainable travel options and reducing congestion. Investment in transport generally and roads in particular improves the connections between places, whether urban or rural. Cities, towns and rural areas are therefore benefiting from ongoing investment that also enables proper planning and sustainable development in support of the aims and objectives of the National Spatial Strategy, Regional Planning Guidelines and local plans. Improved transport infrastructure between cities, towns and rural areas enables planning authorities to refocus on the importance of city and town centres and other strategic locations identified in the National Spatial Strategy and Regional Planning Guidelines and plans at local level and in a plan-led manner in overall terms. In delivering a plan-led approach, the key message of these guidelines is that investment in the capacity of national roads must be protected through appropriate policies and local planning and collaboration between planning authorities and the National Roads Authority. On the other hand, these guidelines are not designed to prevent investment and development at locations on or in the vicinity of national roads – rather that development is guided to the most appropriate locations by ensuring that transport and land-use planning considerations are taken into account at the development plan stage. The views of the public and the various bodies who made submissions on the consultation draft of these guidelines have been considered in the finalisation of this document. Spatial Planning and National Roads iii Phil Hogan T.D., Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government Jan O'Sullivan T.D., Minister for Housing and Planning Leo Varadkar, T.D., Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Alan Kelly, T.D., Minister for Public and Commuter Transport
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- 1.1 Purpose of the Guidelines These guidelines set out planning policy considerations relating to development affecting national primary and secondary roads, including motorways and associated junctions, outside the 50-60 kmh speed limit zones for cities, towns and villages. The guidelines replace the document, Policy and Planning Framework for Roads, published by the Department in 1985, supplement other policy guidance on roads related matters in other Ministerial guidelines in relation to retail planning and sustainable rural housing and replace the National Roads Authority policy statement on national roads published in May 2006 The guidelines, which have been prepared in consultation with representatives from local authorities, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, and the National Roads Authority, will assist road and planning authorities, the National Roads Authority, National Transport Authority and providers of public transport in relation to their involvement in the overall planning process. Spatial Planning and National Roads 1 Introduction Key Messages • These guidelines have been prepared in the context of the delivery of the National Spatial Strategy and actions identified in Smarter Travel, A Sustainable Transport Future, A New Transport Policy for Ireland 2009-2020. • The guidelines set out planning policy considerations relating to development affecting national roads (including motorways, national primary and national secondary roads) outside the 50/60 kmh speed limit zones for cities, towns and villages. • These guidelines have been developed by following a number of key principles and aim to facilitate a well-informed, integrated and consistent approach that affords maximum support for the goal of achieving and maintaining a safe and efficient network of national roads in the broader context of sustainable development strategies, thereby facilitating continued economic growth and development throughout the country. Chapter 1
- 1 2 The guidelines are of practical value to landowners/developers making submissions on development plans/local area plans, applicants for planning permission, their agents and the wider public who interact with the planning process with respect to roads and transportation issues generally. In this document, the Planning and Development Acts 2000 to 2010 are generally referred to throughout as “the Planning Act” or “the Act”, as appropriate, while the Planning and Development Regulations 2001 to 2010 are referred to as “the Planning and Development Regulations”. 1.2 Status of the Guidelines The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government has issued these guidelines under section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended). Planning authorities and An Bord Pleanála are required to have regard to the guidelines in the performance of their functions under the Planning Acts. 1.3 Function of National Roads National roads play a key role within Ireland’s overall transport system and in the country’s economic, social and physical development. The primary purpose of the national road network is to provide strategic transport links between the main centres of population and employment, including key international gateways such as the main ports and airports, and to provide access between all regions. A modern economy requires a world-class road transport network that is sustainable from an economic, social and environmental perspective. Better national roads improve access to the regions, enhancing their attractiveness for inward investment and new employment opportunities and contribute to enhanced competitiveness by reducing transport costs. The Government places a high degree of importance on the provision and enhancement of Ireland’s transport infrastructure systems. Considerable investment has been provided by Government to transform the network of national roads to the highest international standards particularly through the completion of major interurban corridors between Dublin and the National Spatial Strategy Gateways and between the Republic and Northern Ireland along the Dublin – Belfast corridor. Having made this investment and with future investment being focused on public transport, it is therefore important that the efficiency, capacity and safety of the national road network is maintained. However in recent years, increasing population and car ownership rates, changes in lifestyle and employment, and improvements in the quality of the road network have
- also contributed to the unsustainable outward expansion of urban areas. New retail and employment developments tend to be attracted to motorways and national road corridors, particularly junctions and can lead to dispersed and car dependent forms of development. Such patterns of development are uneconomic and also lead to increases in trip distance making it difficult to develop attractive public transport, cycling and walking networks while also having serious implications for the viability and sustainability of town and city centres. Government policy no longer proposes to cater for the type of unlimited road traffic growth driven by the scenario outlined above. Smarter Travel: A New Transport Policy for Ireland 2009 - 2020 sets out Government policy objectives with respect to promoting a significant modal shift from private transport to public transport and sustainable transport modes over the period up to 2020. 1.4 Strategic Traffic Strategic traffic, in the context of national roads, primarily comprises major interurban and inter-regional traffic, whether HGV, car, public transport bus services or other public service vehicles, which contributes to socio-economic development, the transportation of goods and products, especially traffic to/from the main ports and airports, both freight and passenger related. In particular, any local transport function of national road bypasses and relief roads in respect of the urban areas they pass through is, and must continue to be, secondary to the role of these roads in catering for strategic traffic. Therefore, the planning system must ensure that the strategic traffic function of national roads is maintained by limiting the extent of development that would give rise to the generation of short trip traffic on national roads or alternatively by ensuring that the trip demand from future development will primarily be catered for on the nonnational network. Accordingly, there is an onus on developers, and local authorities in their role as planning and road authorities, to devise and implement local transport solutions for traffic/trip demand generated by local development so that the latter requirements can be catered for in a manner that is complementary to and consistent with the strategic transport function of the national road network. Spatial Planning and National Roads 3
- 1.5 Key Principles Taking account of the above, the following key principles have guided the development of these guidelines: Land-use and transportation policies are highly interdependent: Integrated development and implementation of planning and land-use policies is vital in minimising the need for travel. Where such need for travel arises it is important that it primarily be catered for by usage of public transport, walking and cycling outlined in the Government’s Smarter Travel - A Sustainable Transport Future: A New Transport Policy for Ireland 2009-2020, while maintaining the efficiency and intended strategic transport function of national roads. Proper planning is central to ensuring road safety: The creation of new accesses to and intensification of existing accesses to national roads gives rise to the generation of additional turning movements that introduce additional safety risks1 to road users. Therefore, from a road safety perspective, planning authorities, the NRA, road authorities and the Road Safety Authority must guard against a proliferation of roadside developments accessing national roads to which speed limits greater than 50-60 kmh apply as part of the overall effort to reduce road fatalities and injuries. Development should be plan-led: The planning process for national roads has taken account of appropriate future development patterns and requirements, including the implications of the National Spatial Strategy and Regional Planning Guidelines, as the NRA has adopted a 20 year design horizon as a basis for traffic capacity requirements. Accordingly, in preparing development and local area plans, planning authorities must assess the trip generation aspects of any land use zoning objectives and how such trip generation is to be catered for, promoting the use of sustainable modes, while protecting the strategic function of the national roads network. Development Management is the key to Plan Implementation: Future development should be guided by development plans and local area plans prepared in line with these guidelines and such development should achieve high standards in relation to traffic management and design quality. Planning Authorities and the National Roads Authority and other public transport bodies must work closely together: It is vital that, in the course of preparing plans and assessing planning applications, the relevant planning authority, the National Roads Authority and other statutory bodies with responsibility for transport services and road infrastructure provision work closely together to ensure that future development is guided to suitable locations. 1 4 1 For example, an analysis of road accident data indicates that approx. 30% (12,747 collisions) of all injury
Source Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government: Spatial Planning and National Roads: Guidelines for Planning Authorities (January 2012) · 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.