Wicklow County Council has agreed proposals for a major relaxation of its planning rules for one-off housing, which will allow a far larger proportion of people to build in the countryside.
In recent weeks the council published amendments to its draft development plan which will greatly ease current rules for new rural houses, among the strictest in the country.
The new rules were agreed at a meeting of Wicklow County Council last month, against the recommendations of professional planners on the council.
Currently, planning permission for one-off rural homes is banned in green belt areas, with a few limited exceptions.
Permission can be given to people only in circumstances where they were brought up in the area, or are currently living in the immediate vicinity of the house.
This was defined as being from the same townland as the proposed site.
However, under the new proposals, agreed to by a majority of councillors at a meeting last month, the definition of "immediate vicinity" was changed to enable a person living within eight kilometres of a site to apply for planning permission on it.
There are also further restrictions on new rural houses in sites designated as areas of natural beauty and high-visible amenity, regardless of where the person is from.
Any proposed dwelling would have to undergo a visual impact assessment before planning permission could be approved.
Under the new guidelines, this assessment will only be required in 20 listed areas of outstanding natural beauty.
The proposals have divided Wicklow County Council, which passed them by a significant majority, with a number of urban-based councillors claiming the new rules will create an urban sprawl.
Fine Gael councillor Mr Derek Mitchell of Greystones said the new proposals had the potential to seriously damage the environment, especially in green belt areas in the north of the county, close to Dublin.
The new eight-kilometre limit will enable thousands of residents in large towns in Wicklow, including Bray and Greystones, to build in the countryside, he said.
"The northern parts of the county are already under considerable pressure from encroachment from Dublin. It's very serious because this new rule could see most rural roads in north Wicklow being covered with rows of bungalows," he added.
Labour councillor Mr Jimmy O'Shaughnessy rejected criticisms of the new proposals, claiming that the previous rules had been too restrictive.
"In my own town of Rathdrum, a native of the town couldn't get planning permission for a house 150 yards outside the town boundary, because it was in another townland.
"These [new rules\] will give people who were born and reared in an area a chance to live there, that's all we're asking for."
Natives of the county who could have afforded to build on their own land had no option but to move to Co Wexford and other areas further south where house prices were cheaper.
"They're being priced out of the market because people are selling houses in Dublin for €700,000 and are able to buy two houses in Wicklow for the same money, and rent one of them out.
"That has deprived local people, people I represent," said Mr O'Shaughnessy.