Plans which would allow major house-building in various greenbelt areas are to be effectively overturned by the Minister for the Environment, The Irish Times has learned. The areas affected are in Cos Meath, Kildare and Wicklow.
Mr Dempsey will use Section 31 of the Planning and Development Act, 2000, which allows him to instruct local authorities to bring their development plans into line with regional and State policy.
The unprecedented move, which is to be announced shortly by Mr Dempsey, will halt ambitious development plans for villages across south Meath, west Kildare and north Wicklow.
His decision follows widespread concern that population targets in the Kildare County Development Plan are too high, and that draft town plans prepared by Wicklow and Meath County Councils are premature and would extend Dublin's urban sprawl beyond the city's transport and other infra structural links.
In response to the housing crisis and increasing difficulty in servicing commuter-belt housing located progressively farther from Dublin city, the strategic planning guidelines (SPGs) defined two areas: a "metropolitan area" where development and transport services would be sanctioned; and a "greenbelt hinterland area", where services would not be provided and where major development should not be sanctioned.
However, while the strategy was aimed at containing urban sprawl, Cos Meath and Wicklow have produced plans for additional major development in the greenbelt area. The Kildare County Development plan contains population targets which are of concern to the Department of the Environment.
Mr Dempsey is particularly concerned that local authorities accept regional policy in the light of the Government's plans for "growth gateways". These are to be created at strategic locations across the State to counteract the development of Dublin sprawl.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Mr Dempsey confirmed that he would be using his new powers to insist on the amendments.
The Minister, who has already written to Meath County Council, said that there was no point in doing the SPGs if they were all going to go off and do their own thing in their own areas.
He said the Department of the Environment is to organise seminars in the new year to instruct members of local authorities and senior management in the importance of strategic planning.
Mr Dempsey also said that the effect of the SPGs was not to sterilise the areas concerned permanently, but to ensure that the infrastructure, particularly public transport, was put in place before house-building. Nor would it ensure that fewer houses were built, but that they were built in agreed areas adjacent to services.
