Take two: Council revises draft development plan

KERRY County Council has published a raft of ‘material alterations’ to the Draft Corca Dhuibhne Electoral Area Local Area Plan 2020 - 2026, following a huge number of local comments and observations, objections from councillors and severe criticism of the original draft by some official bodies.

The plan, which outlines the overall framework for the development of the Corca Dhuibhne area over the next five years was put on public display last August and received an almost unprecedented 101 submissions by the time the consultation period closed three months later.

Local submissions raised issues such as the lack of adequate traffic management around Slea Head, parking near Inch beach, land zoning, and the council’s decision to put a flood containment zone in an area of Ballybeg near Dingle where there has never been flooding.

Meanwhile, a submission lodged by the Office of the Planning Regulator gave Kerry County Council a rap on the knuckles over a proposal to rezone land in the Ballybeg area for housing when more suitable development land was available closer to the town centre.

When the plan was presented to councillors in mid December further issues were raised and the end result is that the council has now published an amended draft plan, with 55 proposed material alterations to the original document. Among the changes outlined in the new draft local area plan is a proposal to rezone an extensive area of land on the southern side of Ashmount and Goat Street from ‘Strategic Reserve’ to ‘New/Proposed Residential’. This follows on from the initial submission made by the Office of the Planning Regulation which commented that the nine hectares of land on the lower side of Goat Street and Ashmount “are sequentially preferable” and “would provide for a more compact growth” of Dingle town.

The Planning Regulator also pointed out that “the proposed rezoning of 1.14 hectares of council-owned land in Ballybeg “would ordinarily be regarded as non-sequential development and leapfrogging of better and more closely located lands for housing, relative to the town centre of Dingle”. However, the council meeting in mid December decided not to make an amendment on this because it would have meant de—zoning council-owned land earmarked for a housing estate.

Other amendments included in the revised draft development plan include abandoning the proposed flood containment area in Ballybeg and extending the Dingle town boundary, along with the settlement boundaries in Baile an Fhéirtéaraigh, Castlegregory and Lios Póil.

The revised draft plan is open for public consultation from Monday, January 11, until Tuesday, February 9.