Length of planning permission

@PVC King wrote:

I have heard that an ammendment to the planning act has made certain planning permissions now have an extended life from 5 to 10 years.

Does anyone have further detail of the conditions attached to this provision

http://www.environ.ie/en/Legislation/DevelopmentandHousing/Planning/FileDownLoad,20411,en.pdf

is it page 27?

Thanks

Section 27 (1) a (ii) is possibly the wooliest wording I’ve ever seen in my life but would be very difficult to disprove that someone was suffering from any of those issues

This has to be good for architects and planners

@PVC King wrote:

Thanks

Section 27 (1) a (ii) is possibly the wooliest wording I’ve ever seen in my life but would be very difficult to disprove that someone was suffering from any of those issues

This has to be good for architects and planners

I would say that anyone with a planning permission about to expire on a worthless site will be lashing those extensions in.

Reported below, PVC King.

It’s really serious cos it means that dreadful schemes like the Ormond Hotel redevelopment which were just about to expire now have new life.

Planning authorities don’t like it either cos there’s no pressure on the developer to start and thus they don’t get their contribution levies upfront at the commencement of a scheme as normal.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

GOVERNMENT THROWS DEVELOPERS A FIVE-YEAR LIFELINE

Fiona Gartland

HARD-PRESSED developers with planning permission for projects they cannot afford to build are to be thrown a five-year lifeline by Government through new legislation.

The Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009 will allow local authorities to give planning applicants an extension on the time limit attached to planning applications. Under existing legislation, applications have a shelf life of five years.

Regardless of the time and expense involved in producing a plan and getting it through local authority and An Bord Pleanála planning processes, once the five years is past a developer must reapply for permission if they decide to go ahead with the development.

Under section 23 of the new Bill if “the authority is satisfied that there were considerations of a commercial, economic or technical nature beyond the control of the applicant, which substantially mitigated against either the commencement of development or the carrying out of substantial works pursuant to the planning permission, the council may extend the timeframe of the planning permission by a period in time up to five years at their discretion”.

If introduced, the legislation means developments such as that planned for the Burlington Hotel in Dublin may come to fruition when the economy has recovered.

The €1 billion redevelopment plan for the hotel was shelved by developers earlier this month despite having been given permission by An Bord Pleanála. Glasby Ltd had welcomed the success of the application, but said any decision on the site was many years away.

The Bill amends and extends the Planning and Development Act 2000 and the Transport (Railway Infrastructure) Act 2001.

According to its memorandum, its aim is to support economic renewal and promote sustainable development by ensuring that the planning system supports targeted investment on infrastructure by the State.

It also attempts to modernise land zoning and “strengthen local democracy and accountability”.

Under section 18, the Minister for the Environment may direct a local authority to change its development plan, a variation to its development plan or a local area plan.

The authority is bound to comply with that direction and the manager or councillors may not carry out any act that contravenes the direction.

The Bill also aims to ensure a closer alignment between the National Spatial Strategy, regional planning guidelines, development plans and local area plans.

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0623/1224249340590.html

No question that some projects will be built that will be dated and bland as a result of this change. The real purpose of this is to keep valuations of development land at ‘with FPP’ levels in the short term. This was not just prudent but necessary given the amount of development land that is leveraged.

I would however say that banks will play the key role in deciding which of these permissions actually get built. You get the feeling that whilst relationships will remain important that banks will be a lot more selective of what development finance they extend and will be looking to see a big uplift in value between existing use and proposed development. i.e. full redevelopment of cleared sites at transport nodes will secure preference over densification of existing uses.

I strongly hope this encourages more work for architects and planners as developers and funders are able to look at new permutations with the comfort of a longer timeline.

This will mean less work for Architects, Planning Consultants and Planners at a time when they probably need it most. It shows that the creation, protection and maintenance of NAMA has been given the highest political priority. Whether it results in anything being built over the next five years is another question entirely.

I disagree in that if a permission simply expired with so many live permissions in existance that developers would simply concentrate on the live permissions that they had.

What this will do is give an impression that a permission secured now may stay live for a period exceeding 5 years, if I am right then there will be more speculative applications. The real problem in the system at present is securing the finance for the construction phase which will resolve itself as soon as strock overhangs begin to clear, which hopefully will not be too long in the major urban centres.