Ministerial guidelines
Sustainable Rural Housing: Guidelines for Planning Authorities
One-off houses in the countryside: rural area types, local housing need, and siting and design.
Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government · April 2005 · 66 pages
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- 15 Planning Guidelines In dealing with the issue of housing in rural areas, the development plan also needs to include: (1) Links to the housing strategy as the overarching policy context in relation to future housing needs. (2) Overall objectives and associated policies for rural settlement. (3) Objectives in relation to the various aspects of the natural and cultural heritage. (4) Objectives in relation to the identification and protection of key natural assets such as surface and ground water resources, minerals and aggregates. (5) Objectives in relation to the future development and safe operation of transport infrastructure. (6) Objectives to secure the maximum potential from wind energy resources commensurate with proper planning and sustainable development. The following sections outline in more detail what is involved in the preparation of the development plan in the light of such objectives and the associated policies to be included in the plan. Boxes 1-4 in Appendix 3 suggest indicative policies and objectives to be used and adapted to local conditions in setting out development plan policies that are appropriate and responsive to the circumstances in different types of rural areas. 3.2 Identifying Rural Area Types Before planning authorities initiate the process of drafting the written statement of the development plan, as outlined in section 2.2, it is vitally important that a process of research and analysis be carried out into population and development trends in rural areas. This analysis should include the identification of the location and extent of the rural area types set out in section 5.3.2 of the NSS. These will include: (1) Rural areas under strong urban influence. These areas will exhibit characteristics such as proximity to the immediate environs or close commuting catchment of large cities and towns, rapidly rising population, evidence of considerable
- 16lanning Guidelines pressure for development of housing due to proximity to such urban areas, or to major transport corridors with ready access to the urban area, and pressures on infrastructure such as the local road network. (2) Stronger rural areas. In these areas population levels are generally stable within a well-developed town and village structure and in the wider rural areas around them. This stability is supported by a traditionally strong agricultural economic base and the level of individual housing development activity in these areas tends to be relatively low and confined to certain areas. (3) Structurally weaker rural areas. These areas will exhibit characteristics such as persistent and significant population decline as well as a weaker economic structure based on indices of income, employment and economic growth. (4) Areas with clustered settlement patterns. As set out in the NSS, areas exhibiting these characteristics are generally associated with the western seaboard of counties such as Donegal, Mayo, Galway, Clare and some parts of Kerry and many parts of the Gaeltacht where there are comparatively fewer village or smaller town type settlements compared with other rural areas; instead there tends in those areas to be a prevalence of housing clusters, groups of clusters and occasionally linear development. It is to be expected that all planning authority areas which are predominantly rural will contain, to varying extents, at least three of the rural area types defined in the NSS. The three concerned are (1) areas under strong urban influence, (2) areas with a traditionally strong agricultural base, (3) structurally weak areas. In counties where the county town and other towns are comparatively smaller in population terms3 , areas exhibiting the characteristics of being under the influence of urban areas will be quite limited with the issue here being one essentially of avoiding ribbon development extending out along radial roads from the town. 3 Generally towns under 5000 in population.
- 17 Planning Guidelines A substantial body of analysis of rural areas types was conducted as part of the preparation of the National Spatial Strategy and may be obtained at www.irishspatialstrategy.ie This analysis, which is now being up-dated, is especially relevant to the preparation of development plans. Taking into account the approach to the identification of the rural area types in the NSS and preliminary information from the 2002 census, Map 1 illustrates, in a broad brush manner, the extent of these area types from a national perspective. However, Map 1 is only an indicative guide to the possible location and extent of the rural area types referred to above for the purposes of assisting the initial preparatory work on development plans. Further and more detailed analysis must be carried out at local level to incorporate this approach to identifying different types of rural areas in the development plan process. Planning authorities should also carry out and update as necessary a survey of development trends in rural areas that will: (1) Map the locations of various types of rural housing planning decisions. (2) Map, through the Commencement Notice system or by other means, the locations of planning permissions that are developed. (3) Analyse the background to trends in areas where very significant development pressure is being experienced. (4) Publish figures on an annual basis for rural housing applications received and a summary of the decisions made. Consideration should be given to recording such information on a corporate Geographical Information System, (GIS) as applications are processed and decided and in a way that is linked to other databases related to landscape characterisation schemes or groundwater protect schemes. It is also important to ensure that the results of the analysis suggested above are harnessed in developing public support for the objectives of the plan and the principles of proper planning and sustainable development.
- 18lanning Guidelines For example, the results of the type of research referred to above might be incorporated in a brief and summary manner in any “Issues Paper” published to stimulate debate and public involvement in the preparation of a draft development plan. 3.2.1 Rural Area Types - Suggested Policies Having defined the rural area types in the development plan, as set out in the NSS, planning authorities must then tailor policies that respond to: (1) The different housing requirements of urban and rural communities. (2) The varying characteristics of rural areas. These distinctions are necessary to ensure that first and foremost the housing requirements of persons with roots or links in rural areas are facilitated in all such areas and that planning policies also respond to local circumstances whether these relate to areas experiencing economic and population decline or to areas under substantial pressure for development. The distinction in the NSS between urban and rural generated housing was intended to acknowledge the fact that demands for housing in rural areas arise in different circumstances. The distinction was also made to differentiate between development needed in rural areas to sustain rural communities and development tending to take place principally in the environs of the gateways, hubs and other large towns which would be more appropriately located in cities, towns and villages or in well planned extensions to these urban areas. Experience in the past has shown that planning policies need to be able to make the distinction described above, particularly in those rural areas closest to large urban areas, in order to avoid ribbon4 and haphazard development in rural areas closest to these cities and towns. 4 See also Appendix 4.
- 19 Planning Guidelines Piecemeal and haphazard development of rural areas close to large urban centres can cause problems as these urban centres grow in relation to: (1) The orderly and efficient development of newly developing areas on the edges of cities and towns. (2) Obstructing alignments for the future provision of infrastructure such as roads and electricity lines. (3) Undermining the viability of urban public transport because of very low densities. (4) Attendant later problems in terms of demands for higher public expenditure. In terms of detailed development plan objectives and policies relating to rural housing, each development plan should address the issue of rural settlement within the context of an overall settlement strategy, which will normally set out an overall vision for the development of both urban and rural areas. In the settlement strategy, each development plan should start by putting forward a development vision for rural areas that: • Aims to support the sustainable development of these areas in economic, social and environmental terms in a way that supports the rural economy and rural communities, • Ensures that development of rural areas takes place in a way that is compatible with the protection of key economic, environmental and natural and cultural heritage assets such as the road network, water quality, important landscapes, key identified areas with wind energy potential, habitats and the built heritage, and • Promotes the development and consolidation of key settlements in rural areas. In a subsequent section, the development plan could set out, from the analytical base outlined in Sections 2 and 3 above, a strategic overview of the planning authority’s functional area in relation to the different spatial components it contains such as:
- 20lanning Guidelines • Areas that are under major urban influences such as those next to gateways, hubs, large towns and associated transport corridors, • Areas where the key challenge is to maintain a reasonable balance between development activity in the extensive network of smaller towns and villages in such areas and housing proposals in wider rural areas, • Areas where the key challenge is to arrest sustained population and economic decline with a focus on both key settlements and rural areas, and • Areas with a tradition of more clustered or linear development over many generations. These areas should be presented on a single map that illustrates the broad grain of how these areas occur through the planning authority’s area. In preparing such a map every effort should be made to avoid an overly-detailed and prescriptive map that involves abrupt and frequent changes of area types at, for example, District Electoral Division level. Instead, attempts should be made to generalise the map, indicating broadly the location of the different types of areas in relation to which individual applications will be assessed in more detail on their merits. After the description of the general area types within the planning authority’s functional area, the development plan should make it clear that subject to satisfying good practice in relation to site location and access, drainage and design requirements, rural generated housing requirements will be accommodated in the locality in which they arise. 3.2.2 Holiday and Second Home Development Housing completions in recent years have been reaching record levels, with almost 80,000 housing units completed in 2004. Precise information on the proportion of this total national housing output that represents second home or holiday home development is not available. It is fair to assume, taking account of increasing leisure time and disposable incomes, and the impact of development incentive schemes, that the proportion of the total housing build comprised of second home or holiday home development is growing.
- 21 Planning Guidelines For the purposes of these guidelines, it is useful to distinguish between: (1) Housing schemes for letting purposes usually located within or in the vicinity of smaller towns and villages. (2) Resort-type development5 of former demesnes and estates with provision of dwellings either as permanent residences or for letting. (3) Individual second homes. It is important that development plans address the types of development described above in a positive and sustainable manner. Well located and appropriately scaled second home and holiday home development can act as a revitalising force, in economic terms, particularly in remoter or structurally weak areas. However, an unstructured approach in some areas to such development has led to concerns about the effects of such development on certain coastal and lakeside rural areas and on some small towns with relatively limited environmental capacity to accommodate very significant numbers of new holiday and second homes. Concerns have also been expressed that such development can in some cases have adverse effects on affordability for permanent rural dwellers. In responding to the issues above, it is the function of the development plan to strike an appropriate balance between demand for such development and channelling such development to the locations that can best accommodate such development. In particular, development plans should make reference to the NSS and its provisions in relation to holiday homes and second homes under which planning authorities are encouraged to: (1) Emphasise a preference towards the clustering of appropriately scaled holiday home development in or adjoining small towns and villages. (2) Adopt a plan led approach in identifying the potential and preferred locations for appropriately scaled holiday home development in rural villages and towns and second home development in the countryside in general. 5 E.g. golf courses with associated hotel and residential development
- 22lanning Guidelines In considering new dwelling provision in resort type development such as described above, planning authorities, in supporting high quality development predominantly intended for tourism purposes, should seek to ensure that this is of a scale compatible with the character of the surrounding area. The potential for such development to yield planning gains in terms of supporting the restoration of heritage items, including protected structures, should also be harnessed. Development plans might also incorporate policies, based on local knowledge and any supporting analysis of past planning applications and population statistics, that distinguish between areas such as coastal, lakeside and upland areas where demand for and activity in, holiday and second home development is very high and other areas where the demand for such development is lower. The latter areas are also likely to be structurally weak in economic and other terms. In the areas experiencing significant demand for holiday and second home development, development plans might include objectives and policies to the effect that: • Certain sensitive scenic areas such as coasts, lakeside areas and uplands are limited in the their capacity to carry very substantial levels of development and that such capacity as exists needs to be carefully managed, • New holiday home schemes in such areas will be generally encouraged within established villages and small towns or in distinct clusters of development, • Proposals to reinstate, conserve and or replace existing, ruinous or disused dwellings will be looked on favourably by the planning authority subject to satisfying normal planning considerations relating to the provision of safe access and the design and provision of any necessary wastewater disposal facilities, and • Small-scale enterprises, such as the renovation of barns, outhouses or other existing structures and or the construction of one or two holiday homes for rental associated with an existing permanent residence will be encouraged.
- 23 Planning Guidelines Planning authorities should ensure that towns and villages in sensitive areas that are being identified in the development plan as capable of accommodating holiday home type development have the necessary local plans in place to strike an effective balance between conserving the character and scale of such urban centres and accommodating new development. In other areas, as the NSS and these guidelines have made clear, appropriately sited holiday home development can be a positive and revitalising force and, subject to normal planning considerations in relation to siting and design, such proposals should be accommodated as they arise. 3.2.3 Rural Generated Housing To implement the broad approach and policies of the NSS, a key question for planning authorities, particularly those with extensive areas under major urban influence, is how to define rural generated housing needs. Development plans traditionally have described the types of circumstances where rural housing needs are considered to have arisen. Where planning authority areas include rural areas close to cities and towns that are under pressure for substantial urban generated development, distinguishing between urban and rural housing requirements should continue. This approach is also appropriate in the environs of the new gateways and hubs identified in the NSS in the Border, Western and Midlands regions. Development plans in defining persons considered as constituting those with rural generated housing needs, should avoid being so prescriptive as to end up with a very rigid development control system. For example, specifying that persons engaged in full time agriculture only will be considered as constituting a rural generated housing need, could preclude other family members being accommodated on the family farm. An overly vague approach should also be avoided, as this would be of little practical use. Instead, suggestions should be included in the development plan illustrating the broad categories of circumstances that would lead
- 24lanning Guidelines the planning authority to conclude that a particular proposal for development is intended to meet a rural generated housing need. It would then be a matter for the development control system to assess the merits of each application on a case by case basis within this broad framework of categories. Examples of such illustrative suggestions include: Persons who are an intrinsic part of the rural community Such persons will normally have spent substantial periods of their lives, living in rural areas as members of the established rural community. Examples would include farmers, their sons and daughters and or any persons taking over the ownership and running of farms, as well as people who have lived most of their lives in rural areas and are building their first homes. Examples in this regard might include sons and daughters of families living in rural areas who have grown up in rural areas and are perhaps seeking to build their first home near their family place of residence. Returning emigrants who lived for substantial parts of their lives in rural areas, then moved abroad and who now wish to return to reside near other family members, to work locally, to care for elderly family members, or to retire should be also be accommodated. Persons working full-time or part-time in rural areas Such circumstances will normally encompass persons involved in full-time farming, forestry, inland waterway or marine related occupations, as well as part time occupations where the predominant occupation is farming/natural resource related. Such circumstances could also encompass persons whose work is intrinsically linked to rural areas such as teachers in rural schools or other persons whose work predominantly takes place within rural areas. Each planning authority should make its assessment of the scope and extent of rural housing needs to be considered in its development plan having regard to the framework outlined above and taking into account local conditions and planning issues depending, for example, on whether they are dealing with rural
Source Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government: Sustainable Rural Housing: Guidelines for Planning Authorities (April 2005) · 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.