1.0 Introduction
The National Planning Framework (NPF) sets out that
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Planning authorities will be required to apply a standardised, tiered approach to differentiate between i) zoned land that is serviced and ii) zoned land that is serviceable within the life of the plan (NPO72a).
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When considering zoning lands for development purposes that require investment in service infrastructure, planning authorities will make a reasonable estimate of the full cost of delivery of the specified services and prepare a report, detailing the estimated cost at draft and final plan stages (NPO72b).
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When considering zoning land for development purposes that cannot be serviced within the life of the relevant plan, such lands should not be zoned for development (NPO72b).
Appendix 3 of the NPF sets out a methodology for a two-tier approach to land zoning as follows:
Tier 1 Serviced Zoned Lands
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This zoning comprises lands that are able to connect to existing development services, i.e. road and footpath access including public lighting, foul sewer drainage, surface water drainage and water supply, for which there is service capacity available, and can therefore accommodate new development.
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These lands will generally be positioned within the existing built-up footprint of a settlement or contiguous to existing developed lands. The location and geographical extent of such lands shall be determined by the planning authority at a settlement scale as an integral part of the plan-making process and shall include assessment of available development services.
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Inclusion in Tier 1 will generally require the lands to within the footprint of or spatially sequential within the identified settlement.
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Tier 2 Serviceable Zoned Land
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This zoning comprises lands that are not currently sufficiently serviced to support new development but have potential to become fully serviced within the life of the plan i.e. the lands are currently constrained due to the need to deliver some or all development services required to support new development, i.e. road or footpath access including lighting, foul sewer drainage, surface water drainage, water supply and/or additional service capacity.
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These lands may be positioned within the existing built-up footprint of a settlement, or contiguous to existing developed lands or to tier 1 zoned lands, where required to fulfil the spatially sequential approach to the location of the new development within the identified settlement.
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The potential for delivery of the required services and/or capacity to support new development must be identified and specific details provided by the planning authority at the time of publication of both the draft and final development or area plan.
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This infrastructural assessment must be aligned with the approved infrastructural investment programme(s) of the relevant delivery agency(ies), for example, Irish Water, or be based on a written commitment by the relevant delivery agency to provide the identified infrastructure within a specified timescale (i.e. within the lifetime of the plan). The planning authority may also commit to the delivery of the required and identified infrastructure in its own infrastructural investment programme (i.e. Budgeted Capital Programme) in order to support certain lands for zoning.
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The NPF sets out that current development or area plans may include zoned lands which cannot be serviced during the lifetime of a development or area plan by reference to the infrastructural assessment of the Planning Authority. This means that they cannot be categorised as either Tier 1 lands or Tier 2 lands, as per the above, and are not developable within the plan period. Such lands should not be zoned for development or included within a development plan core strategy for calculation purposes.