No relaxing - just yet - of rules covering home building in rural parts of Kildare
Families are ‘being prevented from building homes’
Kildare Council Council has resisted a call to increase the scale of house building in rural areas.
It came from Cllr Bill Clear who asked that the council increase the threshold from 30 single rural dwellings per square kilometre to 40 single rural dwellings per square kilometre.
He argued that the current limit of 30 “is preventing local families from building homes in the communities where they have lived for generations.”
He added the existing policy is increasingly becoming a barrier to rural families, particularly in areas that have already reached the 30-house threshold.
"In many parts of County Kildare, the current limit has effectively been reached. People with genuine local housing needs are finding that they cannot build on family land, not because of environmental concerns or unsuitable sites, but simply because an arbitrary density cap has been reached."
Cllr Clear said he fully accepted the legal requirements but argued they should not prevent KCC from beginning a review.
"My motion was never about bypassing environmental protections. Those safeguards are essential and must remain in place. I want a review of the policy through one of the upcoming variations to the county development plan so we can determine whether the current threshold remains appropriate. Kildare has experienced enormous population growth since this policy was introduced.”
But KCC said this would represent a material policy change to the CDP and would need a full variation of the plan.
It added the existing rules have regard to environmental sensitivities, infrastructure capacity, as well as proper planning and sustainable development.
An increase in density could have an impact on water quality and wastewater assimilation, landscape character and visual amenity, biodiversity and ecological connectivity, including designated European sites.
Under law changes of this nature must be assessed to determine whether they are likely to give rise to significant environmental effects.
Also KCC would be required to assess the potential for adverse effects on the integrity of some sites.
Without an environmental assessment, KCC added, it can’t be seen that the proposed increase would be consistent with the proper planning and sustainable development or with the statutory environmental obligations.
Nevertheless changes to density rules are being discussed at government level.