LandZoning: As a result of 'down zoning', land owned by religious orders that should be worth €5-€10 million per acre will be reduced to a fraction of this and such land will become 'sterilised', writes Bill Nowlan

The zoning of land owned by religious orders and other institutions in Dublin city was the subject of contentious debate in Dublin City Council last Monday when the final touches were put to the new development plan.

The issue in contention was that various parcels of land owned by religious bodies have been "down zoned" in the draft plan for Dublin city which will apply for the next six years.

Technically, the zoning had been changed on selected lands owned by religious bodies from Z12 to Z15. The Z15 zoning objective is to protect long term institutional land where Z12 allows for the development of institutional lands which are considered to be surplus to requirements and includes a much greater range of permitted uses than Z15 and include residential and other significant development.

The situation could even have been worse as, originally, the city council voted to exclude residential development altogether from the Z15 category. However, as a result of a united lobby by many religious orders, the council agreed two weeks ago to restore the use "residential" to the Z15 category but with the added provision that required 25 per cent of the affected land be allocated to community open space accessible to the public.

In agreeing to restore residential to the uses open for consideration, the council voted that any development on Z15 lands would be subject to a master plan and or a local area plan. In addition, the development of such land will be subject to the burden of providing 20 per cent of social and affordable housing where the land value will be close to zero.

What does all this technical jargon mean at a practical level? Well, if you are a religious order in say Ranelagh or Rathgar, it means a number of things. Firstly, it means that, if you are now zoned Z15 and were Z12, the value of your land has gone down by at least 20 per cent.

Secondly, if you want to sell off any land no matter how small, you are going to have to take the time and expense of making a master plan for your entire holding. If you don't know what the long term future of your holding is, then you have a problem.

Thirdly, you will have to allocate 25 per cent of your land for public or community use. Now, by way of comparison, if you are not a religious order or similar institution, then the probability is that your land would be zoned Z9 for residential development and your requirement for public space would be only 10 per cent and not 25 per cent.

During the contentious debate over the past few months various arguments have been put forward by academics and practising legal experts that it is unconstitutional to pick on religious and similar institutions and down zone their lands.

Whatever the legal arguments, it is patently unfair that lands surplus to the needs of religious orders are down zoned simply because of its ownership.

Indeed, the probability is that if such lands passed into ownership of a developer or speculator who locked up the convent or monastery for several years and was not a good neighbour - as most institutions have been - then eventually the land would be rezoned for residential development.

Unfair, you think, but that's democracy!

In theory, town planning is supposed to be objective and not subjective.

To pick on religious orders would not appear to be objective other than for the fact that they have been excellent neighbours to established communities.

Of course, the fact that most of these lands are in mature suburban settings - and the neighbours don't like prospect of new development disturbing their nice environment - may have more to do with the situation than the principles of good planning.

While it is only fair to record that, in their lobbying campaign, the religious were generally accorded a fair hearing by all the political parties on Dublin City Council, it was clear that when it came to vote that many of them were either unwilling or felt politically unable to vote in accordance with the fact that religious institutions have property rights, too, that they are all charitable bodies, and that any monies that might accrue from the disposal of surplus lands now or in the future will be ploughed back into their ongoing educational, healthcare and pastoral work.

It was a bit galling to hear some councillors expressing their concern for the community, while choosing to miss the point entirely about the whole range of vital community services provided by the religious institutions.

It is only fair to record the fact that many other councillors, like Garry Keegan and Michael Donnelly, were not afraid to stand up strongly for the rights of the religious.

As a property and planning consultant, I have to point out to my institutional clients that the down zoning of institutional land is not a phenomenon that commenced in 2005, and it is not one that is going to stop in 2005.

It is likely to go on and on, and will probably eventually get to a point where all institutional land in established city locations will affectively be sterilised while it remains in the religious ownership. With such sterilisation, land that should be worth €5-€10 million per acre will be reduced to a fraction of this level in due course. This may be unfair, unjust and poor planning, but it would appear to be good local politics.

Institutional land owners outside of Dublin city may feel that they have escaped from this issue because they happen to be in Dún Laoghaire, Fingal or south Dublin.

However, they are probably taking a short term view. It is likely that the councillors in these suburban locations will be reviewing their development plans in the next four or five years and they may very well take note of what their counterparts in Dublin city are up to.

• Bill Nowlan is a property consultant specialising in strategic advice to investors and property owners. He was a former director of property at Irish Life and is currently on the board of several property investors including IPUT. He is visiting professor at the University of Ulster