New guidelines may stop 'explosive development', writes Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent.
Once-sleepy hamlets from Donegal to Cork have over the last decade been turned, seemingly overnight, into full-size towns - minus, of course, the services that a town requires.
The examples are numerous. The population of Ratoath in southeast Meath jumped seven-fold between 1996 and 2006. Stamullen, also in Meath, increased in size by 216 per cent, while Rathcormac in Cork has changed beyond all recognition.
Under Minister for the Environment John Gormley's new guidelines set to be put in place next year, such explosive development - far ahead of the services required to sustain it - could become a thing of the past.
Instead, councils will face edicts to limit explosive growth in towns and villages, and to honour the existing shape of such areas when they do order expansion. In villages with less than 400 in population, just 10 to 12 extra houses would be allowed, while permissions for just 15 per cent more houses would be granted in smaller towns over the seven-year life of a development plan.
The guidelines are likely to be highly controversial, particularly where developers have already put together landbanks in expectation of planning permission.
Up to now, State planning guidelines have to be taken heed of by local authorities and An Bord Pleanála when they are adjudicating on county development plans. Already, Mr Gormley and his predecessor, Fianna Fail's Dick Roche, vetoed plans by Laois and Monaghan councillors to zone vast areas of land for housing, far beyond any known demand.
However, councillors have been able to drive a coach-and-four through planning rules by adopting local area plans, which are not subject in the same way to the Minister's wishes.
However, the signals now from the Custom House are that the Minister intends to change this under the new guidelines, which will, no doubt, do little to promote his popularity with development and developer-friendly councillors.
Besides restricting the number of houses that can be built, Gormley also wants councils to ensure that they respect the existing structure and style of towns and villages. Building should first take place on derelict and unused sites, and only then on greenfield sites within the immediate environs.
However, the tendency of developers to plant estates on the edge of towns and villages - and beyond the run of footpaths and street lighting, and often sewerage - is to be discouraged.
"Above all, the overall order and sequencing of development of small towns and villages should avoid significant so-called "leap-frogging" where development of new residential areas takes place at some remove from the existing contiguous urban areas and leading to discontinuities in terms of footpaths, lighting or other services which militates against proper planning and development," the draft guidelines say.
Meanwhile, the fabric of heritage towns and seaside villages - or, at least, those that have not already been changed beyond all recognition in recent years - should be protected.
Planners are to be told to prepare "village design statements" in alliance with local communities to decide on the character of future development. While the statements will not have statutory powers behind them, they are a "useful innovation" to ensure that distinctive local character is maintained, while "new development is effectively managed, not prevented".
When extra housing is allowed, it should "have a sense of identity and place appropriate to the character of the existing small town or village" and they should be connected to the existing urban areas so that "over time" residents are encouraged to leave their cars at home.
Perhaps acknowledging that many in Ireland will never be weaned off a desire for a detached house on its own grounds, Gormley has tried to find a middle ground.
"In order to offer an effective alternative to the provision of single houses in surrounding unserviced rural areas, it is appropriate in controlled circumstances to consider proposals for developments with densities of less than 15 - 20 dwellings per hectare, as long as such lower density development does not represent more than about 20 per cent of the total new planned housing stock of the small town or village in question. "This is to ensure that planned new development in small towns and villages offer a range of housing types..." the guidelines say.