Meeting tonight (Tuesday)

A public meeting will be held in Ballygarvan G.A.A. Hall on Tuesday night , 27th February at 8.30pm to discuss the County Development Plan.Attached document with our initial thoughts for your consideration.

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Review of the Cork County Development Plan
Submission by Ballygarvan Community Association
March 2007
1. Introduction
1.1 Overall, we believe that the process that was followed in developing the most recent plan was very good, especially with regard to the extensive public consultation involved. Moreover, we think that the policies developed and followed by Cork County Council over the last few decades have been broadly correct and that Cork County is an attractive place in which to live largely as a result of these policies.
1.2 We are very disappointed that there is no section in the Issues Paper dedicated to Sustainable Development. This should be a primary concern of the Council given the obvious phenomenon of global warming.
1.3 The State has relatively few instruments to effect change in individual behaviour so it should not be slow to use those instruments it does have. One instrument is the power to grant – or not to grant – planning permission. There seems no good reason why the Council cannot refuse permission for new housing that doesn’t, for instance, incorporate solar water heating. Likewise, it could insist on higher insulation standards, etc. in new developments.
1.4 The Planning Applications Process could be updated. Currently, new developments can be ‘notified’ to the public through inclusion of a notice in a local newspaper which might have very low circulation. Erecting a small sign outside the site might have been sufficent in an era when everyone walked the roads, but this is no longer the case. Other jurisdictions require developers to consult with and notify immediate neighbours and this type of scheme could and should be implemented in Cork.
1.5 Many of the questions posed in the issues document, while interesting and valuable, are quite impossible to answer. Most would require considerable research on what should be done, what works, what doesn’t etc. There is perhaps a danger of being driven by the collective opinion of a host of well-meaning, but ill-informed individuals. For instance, there is scope to do considerable research on ‘what is a good place to live’, and a project such as this, which might collect data on a range of regions in different countries, might provide a useful benchmark for where Cork wants to go.
1.6 Ballygarvan is part of the green belt around Cork City and we believe that there’s scope to think more deeply about what a green belt is or should be. While we recognise the huge effort that goes into planning, the end product (LAPs, and CDPs) suggests that much of the work is around assigning colours to parcels of land. The decision about lands in the green belt, which is a huge area, seems to revolve largely about picking a particular shade of green. This is effective in so far as one function of the green belt is to separate off urban areas, but it is silent on land use (other than the crude designation ‘agriculture’). The designation ‘agricultural land’ harks back to a pre-industrial era when farms could be romanticised as being close to nature, in gentle and idyllic settings. But most farms today are commercial, industrial enterprises that (a) follow a high-input/high-output model of food production; (b) are inaccessible to the public; and (c) are significant contributors to the production of greenhouse gases. The Council could use its powers to incentivise farmers, especially in the green belt, to move away from the industrial farming model and instead to use the land for recreation, amenity and more environmentally friendly food production.
1.7 The Council should compulsory purchase tracts of agricultural land along the major rivers to develop river amenity walks and cycleways across the county. In general, the Council should use the CPO instrument much more widely than it does at the minute. Roads, schools, parks, amenities, houses are all ‘infrastructure’ required for the greater good, and the Council should use its powers, under Article 43 of the Constitution, to compulsory purchase lands for these forms of infrastructure.
2. Questions Relating to County Cork.
2.1 We would like a County that does not suffer from the urban sprawl and unsustainable development that is characteristic of the Greater Dublin Area. The County’s ambition should be to create a living environment that is distinctly different from the Greater Dublin Area. Its model should be Copenhagen rather than Dublin or Los Angeles.
2.2 The County should be an attractive destination for inward migration, since this is a good measure of the County’s overall quality.
2.3 The County needs to take more initiative to encourage sustainable, caring living.
2.4 The County is generally heading in the right direction and we agree with the policy that development should be focused on new rail corridors to the north and east of the city.
3. Questions Relating to Population and Housing
3.1 The 2003 Plan did not have enough ‘conditional zoning’ to ensure that housing would only be allowed if specified recreational, amenity and infrastructure (e.g. schools) are put in place prior to or in tandem with new housing. For instance, the current crisis with the school in Ballygarvan could have been averted if the Local Area Plan had placed a condition on lands zoned for housing in the village. This condition would have stated that permission for new housing on these lands would not be granted until such time as planning permission had been obtained for a new primary school in the area. [Q2]
3.2 The Plan should encourage a greater mix of house sizes, types and styles. The focus should be on creating a quality, family-orientated, sustainable living environment. The current plan is structured too much around setting the housing density (which is only one planning parameter) of particular parcels of land. [Q1]
3.3 There is possibly scope to zone very little land for housing but to be open to developers to put forward proposals to develop unzoned land. The quid pro quo for the Council to change the zoning to housing would be that the developer would have to make a substantial, material investment in terms of infrastructure and amenity. At the moment, the developer/landowner reaps the complete benefit of new zoning without an adequate commensurate requirement that amenities be provided. The Council’s Recreation and Amenity Policy does go some way towards achieving this, but this policy only addresses and is skewed towards incremental amenities required with each incremental increase in housing. Some critical amenities – e.g. schools, health centres, bus routes, walks, cycleways, recreation parks, etc. - fall outside the scope of this policy. [Q2]
3.4 Imaginative approaches need to be implemented to encourage social integration, especially in new housing developments. For instance, the Council (or similar organizations such as Leader) might host and facilitate local community websites that would provide information on local services, amenities, clubs, societies, associations, etc. [Q3]
3.5 The Council should mix social and affordable housing with other housing to ensure that ghettos don’t develop. [Q4]
3.6 Accommodation for travellers should seek to respect their traditions. [Q5]
3.7 It is difficult to comment on the housing needs of the elderly and disabled and research is probably required in this area. Again, however, we believe that the question is not so much about housing as creating a living environment (of which housing is but one element). [Q6]
3.8 The Bacon report focused excessively on housing density rather than on how best to create sustainable, attractive, living communities. One could, for instance, envisage families living in apartment complexs if, and only if, the apartments are properly sized and designed, and if the complex provides appropriate social, play and recreational amenities to cater for the needs of all ages. Most importantly, high-density residential housing is only appropriate in those locations where there are high-density amenities. The developer, Mick Wallace, put it well in the Sunday Tribune of 4th February 2007: “Current regulations are not enough, most of the new apartments and housing developments aren’t suitable for families. We’re going to have to start building mch bigger apartments to accommodate for the fact that more people are going to be living in them long-term rather than as a temporary measure. And most of the new developments, whether they’re housing schemes or apartment schemes, don’t have adequate play areas or pitches for children”. [Q7]
3.9 The trend to smaller household size should not mean that we should build smaller houses. The ‘standard’ house size of c. 1300 sq. ft. dates from decades ago when houses didn’t have freezers, microwaves, computers, extra television sets, Playstations, young adults living at home, etc. The government grant for new housing has artificially skewed the housing stock towards a particular house size (and therefore style) and this is regrettable.
4. Settlement Strategy
4.1 The planning horizon covered by County Development Plans and Local Area Plans seems too short. It will be at least 2008 before a new primary school is provided in Ballygarvan, ten years after the school was first sanctioned. Thus, the time between sanctioning and delivering this piece of local infrastructure will be longer than the time horizon covered by two County Development Plans. Thus, Local Area Plans should have a 25 to 30-year focus and this should not be seen to be solely the remit of the Cork Area Strategic Plan. We are concerned that the County Development Plan is overly focused on incremental growth over the medium term and may fail to adequately consider the category shifts in requirements that will occur over the longer term. Each village/town should therefore have its own long term plan, that sits properly within the larger Cork Area Strategic Plan. [Q1]
4.2 Some benchmarking research should be carried out to identify what a ‘good’ town and a ‘good’ village is. Towns and village development should not be housing driven, as seems to have been the case traditionally in Ireland. Instead, the focus should be on creating towns and villages that are first and foremost communities. Thus, the Council might reshape its role somewhat to focus on developing the county’s social rather than physical infrastructure. [Q2]
4.3 The county consists of a network of settlements but, as much as possible, each settlement should provide services for its own local community so as to reduce commuting and environmental damage and to increase community identity. Market forces have led to the concentration of facilities in urban areas which has put pressure on rural communities. So, for instance, Ballygarvan village has three vacant retail units in the village largely because of the proximity of large retail centres on the city outskirts. Moreover, while concentrated facilities may benefit the large retailer, the overall community may suffer when what economists call ‘externalities’ – e.g. travel costs and environmental damage – are taken into account. Public policy instruments should be used to counter such externalities. For instance, a weighted rates scheme could be used to incentivise particular community based ventures (e.g. a local hairdresser) in local communities [Q3]
4.4 Growth should be prioritised in some areas and restricted in others. Linking the Council’s plans with the provision of public transport is crucial in this process. [Q6]
4.5 Ballygarvan is classified as a village in the current County Development Plan. We believe that the long term plan should be to maintain Ballygarvan as a village for the following reasons:
• There is very little suitable lands near the village for development. To the east and west there is a quarry and a floodplain while there are steep hills to the north and south of the village.
• There are no public lands in or near the village to develop much-needed community facilities. The cost of development land makes it almost impossible for voluntary and community groups to provide community amenities.
• There are serious deficiencies in infrastructure in Ballygarvan – e.g. poor road network, no public transport, no cycleways, no walks, no community hall, no Post Office, limited amenities, etc.
The priority should be to improve the existing infrastructure and to focus on creating a sustainable community. In particular, creating a strong focus to the village centre is important. We believe that the target number of houses in Ballygarvan village should be as follows: 2007: 175 (current number); 2010: 300; 2015: 350; 2020: 400. [Q8]
4.6 More attention definitely needs to be paid to the issue of sustainable development and rising energy costs. This should be the top priority in planning development over the next 20 years. [Q9]
5. Rural Issues
5.1 Planning policy has traditionally tended to equate rural life with agriculture and has made no distinction between different forms of farming (e.g. between organic farming and high-input/high-output industrial agriculture). Moreover, the Council’s planning policy (e.g. its A1 zoning policy) has privileged those engaged in agriculture. However, not everyone who lives or wants to live in the countryside is a farmer or wants to be a farmer. A new, more realistic, and more visionary understanding of rural life needs to inform planning policy. High-input/high-output industrial agriculture is using up too much energy, producing too much food and generating too much waste. Moreover, there is much concern that this industrialised food is making us less healthy.
5.2 Again, research is required to identify what constitutes a ‘good’ rural area.
5.3 Providing high-speed broadband across all rural areas should be a priority.
5.4 A much more developed rural recreation policy needs to be developed. This policy should incentivise farmers to develop rural recreation amenities which should also provide farmers with a sustainable livelihood.
6. Economy
6.1 The concentration of pharmaceutical industry around Cork harbour has been a success. However, this does not mean that it is always sensible to separate housing and industry. ‘Clean’ enterprises – and many large plants are very clean – can be proximate to housing. So, for instance, one of the business units planned for the business park in the airport could be located in Ballygarvan. [Q3]
6.2 The Council’s policy should be to develop ‘wireless villages’ and an extensive broadband infrastructure to facilitate teleworking, working from home, and mobile working. [Q5]
6.3 An international conference facility in the docklands seems like an excellent idea. [Q6]

CDP Review 3: Questions Relating to Population and Housing

3. Questions Relating to Population and Housing
3.1 The 2003 Plan did not have enough ‘conditional zoning’ to ensure that housing would only be allowed if specified recreational, amenity and infrastructure (e.g. schools) are put in place prior to or in tandem with new housing. For instance, the current crisis with the school in Ballygarvan could have been averted if the Local Area Plan had placed a condition on lands zoned for housing in the village. This condition would have stated that permission for new housing on these lands would not be granted until such time as planning permission had been obtained for a new primary school in the area. [Q2]
3.2 The Plan should encourage a greater mix of house sizes, types and styles. The focus should be on creating a quality, family-orientated, sustainable living environment. The current plan is structured too much around setting the housing density (which is only one planning parameter) of particular parcels of land. [Q1]
3.3 There is possibly scope to zone very little land for housing but to be open to developers to put forward proposals to develop unzoned land. The quid pro quo for the Council to change the zoning to housing would be that the developer would have to make a substantial, material investment in terms of infrastructure and amenity. At the moment, the developer/landowner reaps the complete benefit of new zoning without any commensurate requirement that amenities be provided. [Q2]
3.4 Imaginative approaches need to be implemented to encourage social integration, especially in new housing developments. For instance, the Council (or similar organizations such as Leader) might host and facilitate local community websites that would provide information on local services, amenities, clubs, societies, associations, etc. [Q3]
3.5 The Council should mix social and affordable housing with other housing to ensure that gettos don’t develop. [Q4]
3.6 Accommodation for travellers should seek to respect their traditions. [Q5]
3.7 It is difficult to comment on the housing needs of the elderly and disable and research is probably required in this area. Again, however, we believe that the question is not so much about housing as creating a living environment (of which housing is but one element). [Q6]
3.8 The Bacon report focused excessively on housing density rather than on how best to create sustainable, attractive, living communities. One could, for instance, envisage families living in apartment complexs if, and only if, the apartments are properly sized and designed, and if the complex provides appropriate social, play and recreational amenities to cater for the needs of all ages. Most importantly, high-density residential housing is only appropriate in those locations where there are high-density amenities. The developer, Mick Wallace, put it well in the Sunday Tribune of 4th February 2007: “Current regulations are not enough, most of the new apartments and housing developments aren’t suitable for families. We’re going to have to start building mch bigger apartments to accommodate for the fact that more people are going to be living in them long-term rather than as a temporary measure. And most of the new developments, whether they’re housing schemes or apartment schemes, don’t have adequate play areas or pitches for children”. [Q7]
3.9 The trend to smaller household size should not mean that we should build smaller houses. The ‘standard’ house size of c. 1300 sq. ft. dates from decades ago when houses didn’t have freezers, microwaves, computers, extra television sets, Playstations, young adults living at home, etc. The government grant for new housing has artificially skewed the housing stock towards a particular house size (and therefore style) and this is regrettable.

CDP Review 2: Questions Relating to County Cork)

2. Questions Relating to County Cork.
2.1 We would like a County that does not suffer from the urban sprawl and unsustainable development that is characteristic of the Greater Dublin Area. The County’s ambition should be to create a living environment that is distinctly different from the Greater Dublin Area. It’s model should be Copenhagen rather than Dublin or Los Angeles.
2.2 The County should be an attractive destination for inward migration, since this is a good measure of the County’s overall quality.
2.3 The County needs to take more initiative to encourage sustainable, caring living.
2.4 The County is generally heading in the right direction and we agree with the policy that development should be focused on new rail corridors to the north and east of the city.

CDO Review 1: Introduction

1. Introduction
1.1 Overall, we believe that the process that was followed in developing the most recent plan was very good, especially with regard to the extensive public consultation involved. Moreover, we think that the policies developed and followed by Cork County Council over the last few decades have been broadly correct and that Cork County is an attractive place in which to live largely as a result of these policies.
1.2 We are very disappointed that there is no section in the Issues Paper dedicated to Sustainable Development. This should be a primary concern of the Council given the obvious phenomenon of global warming.
1.3 The State has relatively few instruments to effect change in individual behaviour so it should not be slow to use those instruments it does have. One instrument is the power to grant – or not to grant – planning permission. There seems no good reason why the Council cannot refuse permission for new housing that doesn’t, for instance, incorporate solar water heating. Likewise, it could insist on higher insulation standards, etc. in new developments.
1.4 The Planning Applications Process could be updated. New developments can be ‘notified’ to the public through inclusion of a notice in a local newspaper which might have very low circulation. Erecting a small sign outside the site might have been sufficent in an era when everyone walked the roads, but this is no longer the case. Other jurisdictions require developers to consult with and notify immediate neighbours and this type of scheme could and should be implemented in Cork.
1.5 Many of the questions posed in the issues document, while interesting and valuable, are quite impossible to answer. Most would require considerable research on what should be done, what works, what doesn’t etc. There is perhaps a danger of being driven by the collective opinion of a host of well-meaning, but ill-informed individuals. For instance, there is scope to do considerable research on ‘what is a good place to live’, and a project such as this, which might collect data on a range of regions in different countries, might provide a useful benchmark for where Cork wants to go.
1.6 Ballygarvan is part of the green belt around Cork City and we believe that there’s scope to think more deeply about what a green belt is or should be. While we recognise the huge effort that goes into planning, the end product (LAPs, and CDPs) suggests that much of the work is around assigning colours to parcels of land. The decision about lands in the green belt, which is a huge area, seems to revolve largely about picking a particular shade of green. This is effective in so far as one function of the green belt is to separate off urban areas, but it is silent on land use (other than the crude designation ‘agriculture’). The designation ‘agricultural land’ harks back to a pre-industrial era when farms could be romanticised as being close to nature, etc. But most farms today are commercial, industrial enterprises that (a) follow a high-input/high-output model of food production; (b) are inaccessible to the public; and (c) are significant contributors to the production of greenhouse gases. The Council could use its powers to incentivise farmers, especially in the green belt, to move away from the industrial farming model and instead to use the land for recreation, amenity and more environmentally friendly food production.
1.7 The Council should compulsory purchase tracts of agricultural land along the major rivers to develop river amenity walks and cycleways across the county. In general, the Council should use the CPO instrument much more widely than it does at the minute. Roads, schools, parks, amenities, houses are all ‘infrastructure’ required for the greater good, and the Council should use its powers, under Article 43 of the Constitution, to compulsory purchase lands for these forms of infrastructure.

County Development Plan Review

Cork County Council have initiated a review of the County Development Plan and have requested submissions on all aspects of the Plan. The deadline for submissions is March 9, 2007. This is an important part of the planning process since it sets the policy within which future decisions will be framed.

Cork County Council have produced an issues document which is available on their website at
Cork County Council

(click on link on right of homepage).


Ballygarvan Community Association (BCA) is drafting a submission and is having a public meeting in the GAA hall on Thursday 15th February at 8:30 pm as part of this process. If you would like to contribute to BCA’s submission please attend this meeting, or alternatively contact any of the following by 24th February 2007:

Margot Hurley
Tel: 4888843

Kevin Cleary
Tel: 4888286
email kevin

Donncha Kavanagh
Tel: 4888543
email Donncha


Brendan Long
Tel: 4888866
email Brendan


Caitriona Collins
Tel: 4888881
email Caitriona


Max Ryan
Tel:
email Max


Ted McCarthy
Tel: 4888177
email Ted


Edmond Forrest.
Tel:
email Edmond


You may also contribute to this blog by commenting below.

We will produce a draft submission and post this on the blog on 26th February. We will have another public meeting on February 27th (8:30 pm) to finalise our submission. Public Representatives will be invited to attend this meeting.

Mobile broadband from 3

Mobile telco '3' advertised a 'datacard' for laptops in today's Irish Times p7.

There are 2 plans, according to www.three.ie/ihandsets/datacards.html

Basically:

250 MB for €24.99 per month.Card cost €99

3 GB for €39.99 per month.Card cost €49

with extra charges for exceeding download limits.


This provides an alternative to Amocom and Fast Track and has the advantage of being mobile.It will be interesting to see if Vodafone's 3G card subscription is reduced in response.

Vodafone currently offer a '3G Broadband modem' costing €129. If you sign up before 28th February 2007 the cost is just €39.99 per month up to a limit of 5GB per month.Vodafone has other mobile broadband options , see http://www.vodafone.ie/sme/mailonthemove/laptopconnectivity/
for details.

Broadband for Ballygarvan exchange 2007

According to Damien Mulley's blog (see link below) Ballygarvan exchange will be upgraded to enable broadband some time this year.


http://www.mulley.net/2006/10/19/eircom-to-enable-another-100-exchanges-120k-more-people-can-avail-of-broadband/#comment-74452

This is good news and will provide competition for existing providers.

Meeting Thursday 15th February re County Development Plan

A public meeting to discuss the County Development Plan will be held in the GAA hall on Thursday 15th February at 8.30pm.


The Development Plan review is available at:


http://www.corkcoco.ie/co/web/Cork%20County%20Council/Departments/Planning/Development%20Plan%20Review

Public Meeting Monday 12th February re School

A Public Meeting to discuss Ballygarvan school is planned for Monday 12th February at 8.30pm in the G.A.A hall.

See also www.ballygarvan.com

Welcome

This blog will be used by BCA until our website is fully functional