Ministerial guidelines
Retail Planning: Guidelines for Planning Authorities
The retail hierarchy, the sequential approach that puts town centres first, and caps on the size of shops and retail warehouses.
Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government · April 2012 · 73 pages
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- 5 Retail planning needs improved co-ordination between local authorities and upto date and accurate information on trends and needs; and Clear and understandable definitions and planning criteria are vital.- 1.6 Policy Context for Retail Planning These guidelines update and replace the Retail Planning Guidelines for Planning Authorities (January 2005) taking account of the recommendations of the Review of the Economic Impact of the Retail Cap - Forfás2 (April 2011). Consequently, these revised Guidelines contain, in particular, revised policies regarding floorspace caps. (See Chapter 2 for National Policy on Retail Caps). A number of national policies have influenced these guidelines.1.6.1 National Spatial Strategy The National Spatial Strategy (NSS) is Ireland’s overarching spatial planning framework and through its focus on economic, social and environmental issues and on the interlinkages between them, is a key policy instrument in the pursuit of proper planning and sustainable development. The NSS is focused on enabling strategic locations, such as the Gateways and Hub towns, to develop and act as drivers for their catchment areas and wider regions. Co-ordinated development within and around these locations is an essential step in enabling the Gateways and Hubs to perform their national and regional development roles. Retail development can play a key role in supporting the sustainable growth of these strategic locations as well as other key towns such as county towns and other parts of the settlement hierarchies.1.6.2 The National Climate Change Strategy This strategy sets out the measures required to enable Ireland to meet its share of the EU’s commitments under the Kyoto Protocol in stabilising and reducing man-made greenhouse gas emissions. The Strategy recommends a broad mix of measures aimed at achieving a modal shift to public transport, walking and cycling, as well as increased efficiency in both personal and freight transport. These policy aims correlate closely with the retail policy objective of promoting greater vitality in city and town centres through the sequential approach to retail development.1.6.3 Smarter Travel: A Sustainable Transport Future This document sets out the transport policy for Ireland for the period 2009-2020 which, in addition to prudent investment in new infrastructure, sets out necessary steps to ensure that people choose more sustainable transport modes such as walking, cycling and public transport. Smarter Travel also recommended a general restriction of the future development of out-of-town retail centres, except in exceptional circumstances. Both of these key national policies have sustainability at their core and clearly indicate that future population and economic growth will have to take place predominantly in sustainable, compact urban and rural areas which discourage dispersed development and long commuting. 2 The Forfás Study, on the economic impact of eliminating the cap on the size of retail premises with a view to enhancing competition and lowering prices for consumers, was required under the terms of the EU-IMF programme for financial Support for Ireland in 2010. It was prepared for the Departments of Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation, and Environment, Community and Local Government. 1
- 6 1.6.4 Government Policy on Architecture The Government policy on architecture “Government Policy on Architecture 2009- 2015: Towards a Sustainable Future: Delivering Quality within the Built Environment” is also an important consideration and under Action 21, the preparation of the Retail Design Manual accompanying this document was supported. 1.6.5 Other Policies Coherence with wider policy objectives is critical in the integrated delivery of sustainable planning outcomes. Therefore, a range of other key complementary planning and development policies have been taken into account in these guidelines including, inter alia, the Regional Planning Guidelines 2010-2022, the Planning Guidelines on Development Plans (2007), Development Management (2007), Sustainable Residential Development in Urban Areas (Cities, Towns and Villages)(2009) and on Spatial Planning and National Roads (2012). 1
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- 10 Key Messages Retail development must follow the settlement hierarchy of the State and retail• development should be appropriate to the scale and function of the settlement or part of the settlement in which it is located as designated by the NSS, relevant regional planning guidelines and development plan core strategies. Enhancing the vitality and viability of city and town centres in all their functions• through sequential development is an overarching objective in retail planning. A range of caps on the size of convenience and retail warehouse stores is required• to ensure both competitiveness in the retail sector and strong city and town centres. Taking account of the above, five key policy objectives must guide planning• authorities in addressing retail development issues in their development planning and development management functions, namely: Ensuring that retail development is plan-led;- Promoting city/town centre vitality through a sequential approach todevelopment; Securing competitiveness in the retail sector by actively enabling good qualitydevelopment proposals to come forward in suitable locations; Facilitating a shift towards increased access to retailing by public transport,- cycling and walking in accordance with the Smarter Travel strategy; and Delivering quality urban design outcomes.- There should be a general presumption against large out-of-town retail centres• in particular those located adjacent or close to existing, new or planned national roads/motorways. 2.1 Introduction Taking account of the national policy context for retail planning, this chapter identifies overarching retail policy considerations and objectives (See Section 2.5) to be implemented by planning authorities across their development planning and management functions. 2.2 Retailing and the Settlement Hierarchy To ensure proper planning and sustainable development, retail development and activity must follow the settlement hierarchy of the State, including the various Gateway and Hub town locations identified in the NSS 2002-2020, the Regional Planning Guidelines and the Core Strategies of Development Plans. Taking account of historical patterns and the impact of previous retail planning policies, retail functions tend to reflect broad tiers of urban development including Metropolitan, Regional, Sub-Regional (including District Centres within larger urban areas) as well as Small Towns and Rural Areas as well. The classification is indicative and the specific retail functions provided by each tier overlap in many respects; below Dublin, there are no clearly defined cut-off points between levels of the hierarchy. 2 Retail Policy Context
- 11 2 2.2.1 Metropolitan Dublin City supplies retail functions of a specialist nature not found elsewhere in the State, as well as providing the broadest range of comparison goods shopping. The other large cities of Cork, Limerick/Shannon, Galway and Waterford provide a range of high-order comparison shopping which is largely unmatched in smaller cities and towns. 2.2.2 Regional Beyond Ireland’s five main cities, a tier of other Gateway, Hub Towns and other towns perform important regional retailing functions including: The Midlands Gateway towns of Athlone, Tullamore and Mullingar;- The Border Region Gateways of Sligo, Dundalk and Letterkenny;- The Hub towns of Ballina/Castlebar, Cavan, Ennis, Kilkenny, Mallow, Monaghan,- Tralee/Killarney, Tuam and Wexford; and Other large towns such as Clonmel, Drogheda, Naas/Newbridge and Portlaoise.- 2.2.3 Sub-Regional Beyond the Dublin and regional retailing destinations, other important towns such as Arklow, Athy, Carlow, Dungarvan, Enniscorthy, Longford, Midleton, Navan, Nenagh, New Ross, Swords and Thurles perform important sub-regional retailing functions including the major national retailing chains. 2.2.4 District Centres The core strategies of development plans within the larger urban centres above, including Dublin City, other Gateway cities and towns, hub towns as well as other large towns, (generally in excess of 10,000 population), will provide details of the relevant city and town centre areas as well as any locations designated for significant growth within the environs of the city or town in question. The core strategy will also show the retail areas including district centre(s) (See Annex 1 - Glossary of Terms) which provide essential services, including an appropriate level of retailing and amenities to serve the catchment population within those environs. See also Chapter 3, Section 3.4. Having designated the relevant city and town centre areas and any district centres in the core strategy, it is the function of the retail strategy of the relevant development plan to specify the level and types of retailing that will be appropriate to those areas. 2.2.5 Small Towns and Rural Areas The fourth tier of the hierarchy comprises a large number of small towns in the 1,500 to 5,000 population category. There are about 75 in all, most of which provide basic convenience shopping, either in small supermarkets or convenience shops and in some cases, also provide comparison shopping e.g. small-scale hardware, retail pharmacies and clothes shops. 2.2.6 Local Shopping Shopping at the most local level is provided by a mixture of neighbourhood shops in suburban areas and village stores/post-offices in rural areas. In addition, another sector in the Irish retail market is the casual trading sector, including ‘farmers’ markets’. They are located throughout Ireland in both small and large towns and are often a tourist
- 12 attraction and an alternative to normal retail formats. Farmers’ markets also present an opportunity to the local population to sell their produce at good value, directly to customers, thus providing them with access to fresh locally grown, often organic, produce. Such markets can present a welcome addition to the retail options of urban areas and can compliment and augment the existing retail and non-retail uses. 2.3 Enhancing Vitality and Viability of City and Town Centres City and town centres provide a broad range of facilities and services and act as a focus for their wider regions, including rural areas. City and town centres have evolved over a considerable period of time as the focus for a range of commercial and community activities, resulting in a mix of often interdependent land uses which contribute to a sense of place and identity. City and town centres derive their strength from a combination of natural and other features: historic buildings, cultural, civic and governmental buildings, as well as public spaces. This physical form and mix of functions makes a city or town centre different from a shopping centre and provides much of its character. This character can be further enhanced by introducing appropriate new uses into historic buildings. The city and town centres also have a high level of accessibility to employment, services, and facilities for all the community as such centres are key destinations for public transport systems. The development of major shopping centres within city and town centre areas has contributed very positively to the vitality of these areas and has been a major success of previous planning policy. Retailing within the environs of major cities and towns can also perform important functions, for example as part of the district centres identified in the relevant development plan and serving social, cultural and retailing needs of their local catchments. However, retailing in district centres should not be promoted to a scale of development such that they begin to act as retailing destinations in their own right or where this would undermine the vitality of the central area of the city or town in the environs of which the district centre is located. Similarly there is a presumption against out-of-town retail centres which could impact on the viability and vitality of city and town centres and also generate significant additional traffic with potential to impact on the national road network and the performance of junctions and interchanges. The Guidelines on Spatial Planning and National Roads3 address retail development in the context of policy on national roads. 2.4 National Policy on Retail Caps In line with the requirements of the EU-IMF Programme for Financial Support for Ireland, the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, and the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation commissioned the Forfás report, referred to in Chapter 1, to undertake an evidence-based and focused study to analyse the potential economic impacts of eliminating previous caps on the size of retail premises. The study recommended some adjustments to the caps in the previous guidelines in relation to regional differentiation regarding the retailing function of Dublin and the 3 Spatial Planning and National Roads. Guidelines for Planning Authorities (2012) 2
- 13 regional cities but otherwise found that a cap on store size would serve to avoid local market dominance and monopolies and thereby promote both competition and city and town centre vitality. Furthermore, the public consultation responses received on foot of the consultation draft of these guidelines broadly confirmed the acceptance of the findings above. Therefore, taking account of the Forfás study’s analysis and findings, having regard to the changed circumstances and market conditions over the past ten years since the last retail economic study4 and within the context of the broader retail planning policies set out herein, these Guidelines set floorspace caps as follows for convenience retail, retail warehousing and petrol filling station shops: 2.4.1 Convenience retail floorspace caps 4,000- M2 in the four Dublin local authority areas (i.e. Dublin City, Fingal, South Dublin and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Councils); 3,500- M2 in the four other main cities of Cork, Limerick/Shannon, Galway and Waterford; and 3,000- M2 in the remainder of the State (i.e. those areas outside of the four Dublin local authority areas, and the cities of Cork, Limerick/Shannon, Galway and Waterford. These floorspace caps apply to new retail stores or extensions to existing stores which will result in an aggregate increase in the net retail floorspace of the convenience element of such retail stores. In this regard, while some stores may retail convenience goods only, in other cases, stores may retail convenience and comparison goods. In these mixed comparison/convenience retailing stores described above, there is therefore no cap on the amount of non-grocery or comparison space delineated for the relevant store, for example on the planning application drawings. These floorspace caps also supersede caps identified in existing retail strategies such as the retail strategy for the Greater Dublin Area. It should be noted that all of the above floorspace caps refer to net5 and not gross retail floorspace as defined in these guidelines. 2.4.2 Retail warehouse floorspace cap 6,000- M2 gross and with specific criteria (See Chapter 4) to allow for an exemption from this floorspace cap in city and town centre areas in the five NSS Gateway cities. 2.4.3 Petrol filling station shops floorspace cap 100- M2 net irrespective of location. It is a matter for the relevant joint or multi-authority retail strategies and development plans to decide how and or where the caps above should apply to particular cities and towns and their environs where these locations are traversed by local authority boundaries. 4 Goodbody Economic Consultants, The Impact of the Draft Retail Planning Guidelines on the Retail Sector Report submitted to the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and to the Minister for the Environment and Local Government (December 2000). 5 See definition of net retail floorspace in Annex 1 2
- 14 2 In very exceptional circumstances in preparing retail strategies County Councils outside the Greater Dublin Area and the other larger Gateways such as Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford could introduce a small downward revision to the floorspace cap in appropriate circumstances where the size of existing town centres is small in relation to the scale of the cap, and the potential for convenience goods expenditure growth is limited and where accordingly development of convenience stores up to the full extent of the relevant floorspace cap could have a negative impact on the vitality and viability of the town in question. However, if a planning authority wishes to propose a small downward revision to the floorspace cap the justification should be fully substantiated by an expert study, which would demonstrate how effective local competition and consumer choice would be protected. 2.5 Policy Objectives Taking account of the previous sections, these guidelines identify five key policy objectives to be progressed by planning authorities in planning for and addressing the development requirements of the retail sector. These objectives relate to the needs for plan-led development, a focus on city and town centres for the majority of future development, a pro-active approach by local authorities in enabling city and town centre renewal and development to come about and a high quality approach to urban design. 2.5.1 Plan-led Development/Retail Strategies The first national policy objective is to secure plan-led development. Locations that have strong retail functions and a high quality shopping environment in Ireland and abroad tend to represent the historical settlement patterns but also the outcomes of plans and strategies that have: anticipated the requirement for retail development in line with regional strategies;• and facilitated the development required in suitable locations, sometimes enabling• the development of those locations through acquisition, assembly and resale of key sites, facilitating infrastructure and bringing the key infrastructure providers together. Therefore, future retail development should be plan-led following the settlement hierarchy, including the identification of retail requirements and appropriate planning policies and objectives and implementation measures aimed at securing development plan objectives. Furthermore, a plan-led approach will also be underpinned and delivered through the co-operation by planning authorities in the preparation of joint or multi-authority retail strategies for certain areas. Consequently, these Guidelines require the preparation of strategies, by relevant planning authorities, for the gateway cities and towns identified in Chapter 3 (namely Dublin, Cork, Galway, Waterford, Limerick/Shannon and the Midlands). Beyond these locations, it is a matter for the relevant planning authorities to consider, in addition to the inclusion of policies and objectives in their development plans, the preparation of joint retail strategies for towns and their environs particularly where they straddle planning authority areas and especially other NSS Gateways, Hub towns etc. 22
Source Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government: Retail Planning: Guidelines for Planning Authorities (April 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.