Proposed Variation 3 to Kilkenny County Development Plan

Kilkenny County

Development Plan 2014-2020

Proposed Variation No.3

1.         Introduction

In accordance with Section 13 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended), notice is hereby given that Kilkenny County Council intends to vary the Kilkenny County Development Plan 2014-2020 for the purpose of:

1. Incorporating the expired Local Area Plan areas of Piltown, Fiddown and Gowran into the County Development Plan with settlement boundaries in accordance with Section 3.3.5.1 of the County Development Plan
2. Extending the settlement boundary of Ballyragget area so as to allow for the provision of additional housing

The proposed variations are outlined below and should be read in conjunction with a copy of the Kilkenny County Development Plan 2014-2020.

1.1         Background to Proposed Variations:

Variation No. 3 (a) - Incorporating the expired Local Area Plan areas of Piltown, Fiddown and Gowran into the County Development Plan with settlement boundaries in accordance with Section 3.3.5.1 of the County Development Plan.

The Gowran Local Area Plan (LAP) expired in December 2016 and the Fiddown and Piltown Local Area Plans expired in January 2017.  Since the expiration of these LAPs the policies and objectives of the County Development Plan apply to these towns. In line with the other settlements where LAPs have expired, it is proposed to incorporate a settlement boundary for each of these LAPs into Chapter 3 of the County Development Plan.  

Maps of the settlement boundaries will be inserted after figure 3.13 in Chapter 3 of the County Development Plan 2014-2020 as Figures  3.13a, b and c.

As with other settlements under Section 3.3.5.1, the expired LAPs will be used as supplementary guidance documents for planning purposes.

Variation No 3 (b) to extend the settlement boundary of Ballyragget, so as to allow for the provision of additional housing within its settlement boundary, see Figure 3.3.

It is proposed to include a further 7.27 hectares of land within the Ballyragget settlement boundary, which includes two additional areas, see Figure 3.3.  Site A of these lands are required by the Council (0.27ha) for the provision of social housing and site B (7 ha) comprises lands for which contributions have already been paid under the Serviced Land Initiative so as to kick start housing development in Ballyragget. The development of Site B is however subject to the provision of a second access onto the Kilkenny road to the Southwest of the site.

It is recommended that the following objective be inserted in section 3.3.5.1;

SO1:  The land identified as B shall only be developed subject to a second entrance being provided onto the Kilkenny Road to the Southwest of the site.

2.         Proposed changes to the County Development Plan 2014-2020 to facilitate the above Variations.

Changes to the existing policy of the Kilkenny County Development Plan 2014-2020 are set out below, with the proposed insertions in italics and deletions in strikethrough.  

2.1       Chapter 3: Core Strategy

1. 1. 1. 1. Expired LAPs

The Local Area Plans for Ballyhale, Ballyragget, Freshford, Goresbridge, Inistioge, Kells, Knocktopher, Mooncoin, Mullinavat, Slieverue, Stoneyford, Fiddown, Gowran, Piltown, and Urlingford have expired.

For the purposes of this core strategy, these 12 15 towns will not be assigned a separate population projection, but will be considered as part of the remaining area of the county in the core strategy table.  Each of these towns will be subject to a map within this Plan which depicts a settlement boundary within which development will be considered in accordance with the policies outlined below (see Figures 3.2-3.13 a-c). There will be no development objectives in these settlements apart from Ballyragget, which has an objective for a second access onto the Kilkenny road to the Southwest of site B, indicated with an asterisk*. Development proposals within the boundary will be considered on their merits against the policies and objectives contained in the core strategy and the Development Plan generally.

Objective: Ballyragget

3SO1: The land identified as Site B on Figure 3.3 shall only be developed subject to a second entrance being provided onto the Kilkenny Road to the Southwest of the site (see asterisk*).

The LAPs for Bennettsbridge, Kilmacow and New Ross Environs have also expired and the Development Plan includes a zoning and phasing map for these three settlements, see Figures 3.14-3.16. 

The expired LAPs are no longer the statutory plans for their areas but the plans do contain a significant amount of information on natural and built heritage and other planning issues. The expired plans will be used as supplementary guidance documents for planning purposes.  Housing development within the settlement boundary of these towns will not be subject to the rural housing policy as outlined in section 3.5.

Where a smaller town or village does not have a statutory Local Area Plan or a development boundary in existence at the time of this development plan then for development management purposes it will be considered as part of the County’s rural area i.e. there is no change in its status.

The local authority will, if the need arises, prepare Local Area Plans or other appropriate planning framework documents for areas within the County whether urban or rural.  The Council will review the development objectives and development management requirements for villages with expired LAP’s during the life of the Plan. 

1. 1. 1. 2. Existing LAPs

Extant LAP’s are in place for the towns and villages of Bennettsbridge, Fiddown, Gowran, Kilmacow, and Piltown.

Towns with existing LAPs are targeted for growth having regard to their position within the settlement hierarchy of the County and the scale and character of the individual settlement i.e. commensurate with their position within the hierarchy.

As can be seen in Table 3.3, the smaller towns and villages with extant LAPs contain 13.6 hectares of undeveloped residentially zoned land within their Plans.  If an average density of 15 units per hectare is applied (6 per acre) the 13.6 hectares could yield 204 housing units which could accommodate 603 persons assuming an average occupancy of 2.96 persons per unit.

Where a smaller town or village has an extant Local Area Plan with zoning objectives then this core strategy sets out a phasing map for the land within the Local Area Plan.  These maps supersede the original zoning map within the relevant Local Area Plan, see Figures 3.14 – 3.16. 

The Ferrybank-Belview LAP will be reviewed within 2 years from the adoption of this Development Plan. 

Delete Table 3.3 and replace as follows: