Agenda and minutes

Order: Agreed

Item 3: Part 8 Procedures:

A question was raised about the draft Part 8 Procedure circulated with the last Agenda.  The Assistant Chief Executive explained that once the minutes of the SPC held on the 27^th February were adopted this draft Part 8 Procedure would come into effect. 

Item 4: Strategic Housing Developments:

A request was made at the SPC meeting held on the 27^th February, that a submission be made to the Department of Housing and Planning that there be a special derogation for the month of August with regard to Planning Submissions.

Máire Igoe reported that the Department in their response had no plans for any special derogation at the moment.

Protected Structures

Discussion took place on the Report.

Concerns were raised about the number of Protected Structures waiting to be assessed.

The importance of the same methodology being used when assessing Protected Structures was highlighted together with the professional nature of this work. 

The City Planning Officer indicated that he will write to the Department about the “one size fits all” grading system.

The Chair suggested that a Report on the impact of Planning Law and our procedures on Protected Structures would be useful.  How are these buildings fairing in real life or is this resulting in more dilapidation.

Order: Report Noted

Discussion took place on the Report.

Concerns were raised about the lack of housing and waiting for the private sector to build.  A question was asked as to when the Poolbeg Site would be ready to build on.

The City Planning Officer suggested that the Poolbeg Site would be ready for building mid 2020 after the bridge and enabling works are complete.

 A Report was requested on the impact of Student Accommodation and the release of accommodation onto the market.  

Order: Report Noted

The City Planning Officer gave a presentation this was to follow up on the presentation given by Riccardo Marini.

The Presentation highlighted Dublin Cities many good examples of good Place Making and Public Realm.  The residents must be taken into account when creating Place Making, they should feel engaged and proud.  The idea is to promote engagement, a feeling of being safe, somewhere for people to congregate, enjoy views and sit down.

The City Planning Officer spoke about the Public Realm Strategy which is a living strategy. Some good examples were Trinity College, the Amphitheatre at the Civic Offices, Weaver Park Cork Street and Grand Canal Square.

The Kilmainham Civic Space had been nominated for a prestigious award, The Academy of Urbanism, Awards 2019, shortlisted under the heading “The Great Place”. 

Discussion took place after the presentation.  Consultation with the local Community is key when deciding on Public Realm projects. A comment was made about the lack of public toilets and water features.

 In the Development Plan there is reference to aluminium poles and their removal, 50 poles per area per year.

Meetings have taken place with the Gardaí and the Parks Department to work on anti social behaviour.

Order: Report Noted

Máire Igoe provided attendees with an update on charges for copies of planning documents which is provided for under Sn. 38 of the Planning Acts.  Printing of maps can be very time consuming, however there is no charge for staff time involved.  Sn. 38 (4) provides that the fee shall not exceed “reasonable cost”.

Order: Report Noted

Mr.Odran Reid had requested that this would go back on the Agenda.

Discussion took place about the NTA and the Metro Link, the feeling is that the Santry River Greenway should be looked at in tandem with any ongoing works. Plans for a Biodiversity Research Centre at Bull Island were mentioned and that the cycleway to link Santry to this amenity would be vital.

The Chair asked if there is anything that the Management can do to support the Planning SPC moving this along.

As this project involves The Parks and Transportation Departments, the ACE will liaise with these departments to provide an update as to where this project is at and what is the expected time line. 

Order: Noted

Report on Acquisitions from July 1^st 2017 to 31^st December 2017 circulated at the meeting.  Helen McNamara explained that it was not possible to say how long it takes to acquire a property, as acquisitions can take anything from a few weeks to a couple of years to complete and will vary according to whether it is being purchased by agreement or compulsorily and whether the title is registered or not.

Order: Report Noted

Top 10 sites on register noted.

Discussion took place on the Report.

A question was raised about site No. 3 on the Report which was said to be under construction. Helen McNamara explained that under the legislation, it is the responsibility of property owners to notify the local authorities when building works commence in order to avoid the property going on the Vacant Sites Register.  A further inspection of the site will be arranged.

Order: Report Noted

Motion in the name of Valerin O'Shea:

In light of the discussion at the meeting of February 27^th 2018 regarding the difficulty experienced by DCC in up-loading planning application documents on to the DCC website in a satisfactory manner; and the proposal to out-source same at what are likely to be enormous cost; I propose the following to this committee:

'That this SPC agrees to request the Minister for the Environment to amend Article 22(3) of the 'Planning and Development Regulations 2001-2015  Updated to 10th September 2015' by changing the wording “consents to” to “requests” and the removal of the clause: 'where that occurs, one copy of the application or part thereof will be sufficient'.  It is proposed that Article 22(3) be amended from:

Where the planning authority consents to the making of an application wholly or partly in electronic form, an application or any part thereof may be made by the applicant in that form; where that occurs, one copy of the application or part thereof will be sufficient

to:

Where the planning authority requests the making of an application wholly or partly in electronic form, an application or any part thereof may be made by the applicant in that form”

The suggested change in wording would enable DCC to request that one of the 6 sets of documents submitted with an application be in disc form.  This would not only save enormous sums of much needed money but would also avoid the long delays (up to 15 days) in making the application available to the public.  If the time required were just to check that all documents had been correctly submitted and to put the contents of the disc on the web this could perhaps be done within the 3 days suggested as desirable at the last meeting and at a tiny fraction of the cost of the time-consuming process of scanning all documents.

Motion in the name of Valerin O'Shea:

In light of the discussion at the meeting of February 27^th 2018 regarding the difficulty experienced by DCC in up-loading planning application documents on to the DCC website in a satisfactory manner; and the proposal to out-source same at what are likely to be enormous cost; I propose the following to this committee:

'That this SPC agrees to request the Minister for the Environment to amend Article 22(3) of the 'Planning and Development Regulations 2001-2015  Updated to 10th September 2015' by changing the wording “consents to” to “requests” and the removal of the clause: 'where that occurs, one copy of the application or part thereof will be sufficient'.  It is proposed that Article 22(3) be amended from:

Where the planning authority consents to the making of an application wholly or partly in electronic form, an application or any part thereof may be made by the applicant in that form; where that occurs, one copy of the application or part thereof will be sufficient

to:

Where the planning authority requests the making of an application wholly or partly in electronic form, an application or any part thereof may be made by the applicant in that form”

The suggested change in wording would enable DCC to request that one of the 6 sets of documents submitted with an application be in disc form.  This would not only save enormous sums of much needed money but would also avoid the long delays (up to 15 days) in making the application available to the public.  If the time required were just to check that all documents had been correctly submitted and to put the contents of the disc on the web this could perhaps be done within the 3 days suggested as desirable at the last meeting and at a tiny fraction of the cost of the time-consuming process of scanning all documents.

Máire Igoe gave a verbal response to this Motion.

Article 22 (3) refers to “partly in electronic form” this is normally a hard copy application but for example instead of 6/10 copies of a Conservation method statement, (which can be very large) 1 maybe accepted and the remaining required copies are received in disc.

Even if the application was all on disc there is a nominal exercise that would need to be undertaken whereby each document still needs to be checked, named etc in order for the documents to be retrievable on the web.

Whether documents are received on disc or hard copy the same checking  procedures need to be undertaken.

In the case of an application made online the applicant fulfils part of the checking procedure. A change in legislation would be required to compel all applications to be made electronically and the online system currently would not be able to facilitate this change.

Motion Noted

Joint meeting with the Economic SPC proposed (from previous meeting)

National Planning Framework 2024 Presentation from the Regional Assembly

Next meeting:  Scheduled for 26^th June 2018 @ 3.30 in the Council Chamber,      City Hall.