MEETING OF DÚN LAOGHAIRE-RATHDOWN COUNTY COUNCIL

11 FEBRUARY 2019

BALLYBRACK/ LAP

Question : Councillor S. O’Brien

“To ask the Chief Executive, given that meaningful and effective consultation is necessary to deliver quality Local Area Plans, will she now prepare a pre-draft issues paper to assist the creation and implementation of a Local Area Plan for the Ballybrack/Loughlinstown area as adopted in the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Development Plan 2016-2022?”

Reply:

As recently advised, in reply to a motion on the Blackrock LAP at the Dun Laoghaire HEPI Area committee of 21st January 2019 (Agenda Item 12) the Forward Planning Section in conjunction with relevant officials of other Council Departments – are currently advancing the preparation of three Statutory Local Area Plans for Dundrum, Old Connaught, and Environ; the Bulloch/ masterplan and URDF funded studies for the Major Town Centres of Dundrum and Dun Laoghaire, in addition to a whole raft of other forward and active land management workload. Quite simply there is no surplus resource capacity to commit to yet another LAP at this juncture.

At the Council Meeting of 9th April 2018, (Agenda Item 12) a comprehensive report on the proposed LAP Work Programme for 2018 to mid-2019 was brought to the Members under ‘Chief Executive’s Business for Noting’, that report also commented that the Development Plan commitment to the preparation of seven ‘new’ LAPs – in corroboration with the statutory obligations to review four ‘end of life’ LAPs – represented an ambitious and challenging objective that would stretch the resource capacity of not just the Forward Planning Section and its Drawing Office but also other Council Departments that are required to input into the process.

It is intended that an updated LAP Work Programme for 2019 to mid-2020 will be brought to the Council in Q2 2019. Any future Work Programme and indicative timelines will be very much influenced by, and dependent upon, a wide range of factors – local, strategic, and ‘external’ including:

 The significant resource implications associated with the next (2022-2028) County Development Plan which is statutorily obliged to commence February 2020 – or possibly even sooner depending on the timeline for the adoption of the EMRA Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy (RSES)  Any significant policy shifts or demographic imperatives emerging from both the RSES and the Metropolitan Area Strategic Plan (MASP)  The potentially resource intensive requirements associated with the recently announced statutory requirement to prepare an evidence-based Housing Need and Demand Assessment (HNDA) that may require to be incorporated into the County Development Plan. This is likely to be a forensic piece of work that could divert resources away from and / or consequently delay the delivery of LAPS.

Owner: Dave Irvine, Senior Planner, Planning and HR Department