Submission on Draft Development Guidelines
Friday, July 28, 2006
The preparation of draft development plan guidelines by the Department is welcomed by the IPI. The development plan is at the heart of the Irish planning process and the guidelines will assist in setting standards and ensuring best practice. The development plan provides the framework for future decision making and its positive and proactive role should be stressed and reinforced whenever possible. We wish to take this opportunity to comment on the document from our experience as practitioners. Our detailed comments follow the chapter structure of the draft guidelines.
As a preamble we wish to state that the implementation of the development plan, through the development management system, is the real test of the success of the plan. This interaction is often not given enough attention during the drafting process. This may arise due to the separation of development plan preparation and development management systems within planning authorities. The result can be that the best intentions of policies are undermined by over emphasis on interpretation of development management standards, or that overly numerous and conflicting policies sow confusion and make the development management process unpredictable. If through these new guidelines we can achieve development plans that are practical, understandable and consistent with enough flexibility to allow for good development in the right location, then the planning system will be significantly strengthened.
Naturally, resourcing of the Forward Planning section is crucial and the setting up a permanent department, staffed by experienced planners and technicians with appropriate budget and tools is essential.