The Park West - Cherry Orchard area has been identified in the Dublin City Development Plan 2016-2022 as an area for which a Local Area Plan will be prepared. The identification of this area acknowledges the need for regeneration within Cherry Orchard. The preparation of a Local Area Plan (LAP) allows for future development to be managed in a coordinated and sustainable manner, integrating new neighbourhoods with existing communities and providing for the needs of the existing and future populations.
With approximately 46 hectares of land available for development, the Development Plan recognises the importance of this area, having the potential to deliver approximately 2,000 new residential units alongside new mixed use and commercial development.
The past ten to twenty years has seen significant albeit sporadic changes to the physical character of Park West and Cherry Orchard. Previous plans for development fell foul to economic recessions leaving some new developments isolated and un-connected to neighbouring amenities. With new plans in place for significant investment in public transport infrastructure, including in particular the provision of an electrified DART line to serve the Park West - Cherry Orchard train station, it is timely to put in place a plan that can maximise the benefit from public investment and help provide much needed housing for the City, located within sustainable and attractive emerging neighbourhoods.
This Local Area Plan, on coming into effect, will remain in force for a period of six years. The Council may after five years decide to extend the life of the plan, to a period no longer than 10 years in total.
The LAP covers an area of approximately 267.51 hectares, set between Ballyfermot Road and the Grand Canal, with the M50 forming the western boundary. To the north of the railway line the plan includes Cherry Orchard Hospital lands, the Wheatfield and Cloverhill Prisons and Courthouse, and the residential estates of Elmdale, Barnville, Cherry Orchard and Croftwood. South of the railway, the plan includes lands identified as the Park West Business Park, Park West Point and the Aspect hotel, all located west of the Park West Industrial Estate. For the most part the northern, western and southern boundaries correspond with the administrative boundary between Dublin City Council and South Dublin County Council.
A total of eight development sites, and two key amenity development sites are identified within the LAP. Within Cherry Orchard, sites 1-5 are largely in the ownership of Dublin City Council, equating to 31.7 hectares; while sites 6-8 in Park West which contain c. 14.3 hectares are in private ownership.
A Local Area Plan (LAP) is an important statutory document prepared by the Planning Authority in accordance with the requirements of the Planning and Development Act, 2000 (as amended). This Act provides that a planning authority may, at any time, prepare a local area plan for any particular area within its jurisdiction which the planning authority considers appropriate; in particular for areas which require economic, physical and social renewal, and for areas likely to be subject to large scale development within the life of the plan. With approximately 46 hectares of undeveloped land available for development, and existing recognised levels of disadvantage (see Chapter Two), the area is identified in the Dublin City Development Plan 2016-2022 (Table F) as suitable for a Local Area Plan. The Plan is a statutory framework to guide the future sustainable development of the area.
As required under the Planning and Development Act, 2000 (as amended), the LAP must be consistent with the objectives and core strategy of the City Development Plan, in addition to any regional spatial and economic strategies that apply and to Transport Strategies within the Greater Dublin Area, (see policy and statutory context below).
The Plan once adopted will be a primary instrument to guide and control development. Both the planning authority and An Bord Pleánala must have regard to the provisions of the LAP when determining planning applications for development proposals in this area.
The remainder of this chapter sets out the process of preparing a local area plan and the statutory and policy context that inform the objectives of the Plan.
The process of preparing a Local Area Plan can be summarised in a number of key stages:
An overview of these stages for this LAP is outlined below.
The Issues Paper (i.e. pre-draft stage) public consultation was launched on the 12th February 2018 with the publication of a public notice and the Issues Paper document. The Issues Paper [HTML] was put on public display from 12th February 2018 - 29th March 2018, and is available to view on the Council’s website and at the Orchard Community Development Centre, Cherry Orchard Grove, Dublin 10, Ballyfermot Community Civic Centre, Ballyfermot Road, Dublin 10 and in the Atrium at Dublin City Council Offices, Wood Quay, Dublin 8.
A range of stakeholders including local community groups and organisations, social enterprises, schools and sports clubs were notified. Use was also made of the Dublin City Council social media accounts (Facebook and Twitter) to help raise awareness and notify the members of the public. Posters on the consultation process were erected in 16 locations throughout Park West, Cherry Orchard and the surrounding areas including the Orchard Community Centre, Ballyfermot Community Civic Centre and local shops and community buildings. Members of the Planning Department were available locally in the area to assist with any queries at the following public consultation information sessions:
Where possible these information sessions linked in with local activities to help maximise awareness.
Other consultation sessions included a “walk-about” with elected members of the Council and the Oireachtas (February 2018); a youth consultation which was co-organised and facilitated between Dublin City Council, Familibase and the Cherry Orchard Integrated Youth Service; and consultation with Cherry Orchard Running Club.
This stage in the process was non-statutory and was undertaken to stimulate interest and to invite submissions from members of the public on matters relevant to the LAP.
A report summarising the submissions received during Stage 1, and consultations with various other stakeholders including the National Transport Authority, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, Irish Water and the Irish Prison Service were presented to elected members of the South Central Area Committee on the 16th May 2018 and to elected members of the City Council on the 11th June 2018.
This preparatory work has taken place alongside the integration of the LAP with National, Regional and Council policy (see below). The draft LAP is also required to comply with EU directives including Strategic Environmental Assessment, Appropriate Assessment and Strategic Flood Risk Assessment processes.
The current stage of the LAP process involves placing the draft LAP on public display for a period of 6 weeks from 11th June until 22nd July 2019. Submissions and observations on the Draft Plan are invited.
During the 6-week period, the Plan will be available for viewing [HTML] in the Orchard Community Development Centre, in the Ballyfermot Community Civic Centre, and in Dublin City Council’s Civic Offices at Wood Quay and on-line.
A copy of the draft LAP is being sent to bodies prescribed under the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended.
Stages 4 and 5: Preparation of Chief Executive’s Report on Submissions/Observations and public display of any alterations and Making the Adopted Plan:
Once the current public consultation period is closed, a Chief Executive’s Report will be prepared on the submissions received and this will be presented to the Council for consideration (max 12 weeks after the public notice). At that stage the Council may decide to adopt the plan as it currently stands, or they may make changes to it. If the changes are deemed to be material in nature, these changes will be placed on public display seeking further comments for a period of 4 weeks.
The Local Area Plan shall have effect 4 weeks from the day that it is made by the elected members.
Just as important as the preparation and adoption of the LAP, continual monitoring of progress towards achieving stated policies and objectives is an integral element of the LAP process, particularly if an LAP is to be effective and deliver identifiable progress on the ground. As one of the principal land owners in the area Dublin City Council will play a key role in this implementation process.
The overarching theme of planning policy which informs this LAP is the consolidation and sustainable use of land in urban areas, particularly urban environments well served by public transport.
Urban consolidation is a key component in the achievement of sustainable development, economic competitiveness, coherent neighbourhoods and environmental quality in order to achieve full economic value from investment in public infrastructure.
This LAP is informed by, and in keeping with, the policy hierarchy of national, regional and City planning policy, the key provisions of which are summarised below. The purpose of this LAP is to translate national and regional policy to the local level, in accordance with the provisions of national legislation and the Dublin City Development Plan 2016-2022.
Project Ireland 2040 is the government’s overarching policy initiative to make Ireland a better country, framed within the National Planning Framework to 2040 (NPF) and the National Development Plan 2018-2027. It seeks to achieve ten strategic outcomes building around the overarching themes of wellbeing, equality and opportunity.
The National Planning Framework (NPF) came into effect on the 16th February 2018. It sets out a spatial strategy for Ireland, to accommodate in a sustainable growth and balanced future demographic changes, including an increased and ageing population, alongside smaller family households, which together by 2040 will create the need for an additional half a million homes. The Plan targets growth throughout the Country while continuing to support the future growth of Dublin as Ireland’s leading global city.
One of the primary goals of the NPF is the delivery of ‘Compact Growth’. Within the Dublin City region, the plan seeks to deliver at least 50% of all future homes within the existing built-up footprint; to make better use of under-utilised land including brownfield sites, and to deliver high housing and job densities in areas better served by existing facilities and public transport.
In particular the NPF indicates that:
“Carefully managing the sustainable growth of compact cities, towns and villages will add value and create more attractive places in which people can live and work. All our urban settlements contain many potential development areas, centrally located and frequently publicly owned that are suitable and capable of re-use to provide housing, jobs, amenities and services, but which need a streamlined and co-ordinated approach to their development, with investment in enabling infrastructure and supporting amenities, to realise their potential. Activating these strategic areas and achieving effective density and consolidation, rather than more sprawl of urban development, is a top priority”.
The NPF is supported by the ten year National Development Plan (NDP) 2018-2027 which aligns public capital investment with the strategic planning goals of the NPF, thus aligning the country investment strategy with the strategic planning policy.
The National Adaptation Framework (NAF) was published in January 2018 as Ireland’s first statutory National Adaptation Framework under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015. The Framework sets out the potential implications of climate change for Ireland and specifies the national strategy for the development of adaptation measures by key sectors and local authorities.
The overarching aim of this document is that by 2020 future population and economic growth will occur predominantly in sustainable compact locations. It sets out how the government’s vision of sustainable travel and transport in Ireland by year 2020 can be achieved. A target of reducing car based commuting from 65% to 45% nationally by 2020 is set. Five key goals of ‘Smarter Travel - A Sustainable Transport Future’ are to:
The document promotes the use of consolidation as a planning approach to deliver these key goals by making more sustainable modes of travel viable and available.
The Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly issued a draft Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy for public consultation in November 2018, which was approved on 3rd May 2019 The principal statutory purpose of the RSES is to support the implementation of Project Ireland 2040 - The National Planning Framework (NPF) and National Development Plan (NDP), and the economic policies and objectives of the Government by providing a long-term strategic planning and economic framework for the development of the region. As required under the NPF the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy for the Eastern and Midlands area includes a specific Metropolitan Area Strategic Plan (MASP) for the Dublin area. Once adopted this statutory plan will act as a twelve year strategic planning and investment framework for the Dublin City Metropolitan Area.
The Growth Strategy for the Eastern and Midland Region will:
The RSES supports the consolidation and re-intensification of infill/brownfield sites to provide high density and people intensive uses within the existing built up area of Dublin city and suburbs and ensure that the development of future development areas is co-ordinated with the delivery of key water infrastructure and public transport projects.
To achieve ambitious compact development targets of at least 50% of all new homes within or contiguous to the existing built up area in Dublin and 30% in other settlements, the MASP identifies strategic residential, employment and regeneration development opportunities along with the requisite infrastructure investment needed to ensure a steady supply of sites in tandem with the delivery of key public transport projects as set out in the National Development Plan.
The MASP identifies strategic residential and employment development corridors based on their capacity to achieve compact sustainable and sequential growth along key public transport corridors, existing and planned to achieve the creation of sustainable compact communities with improved housing choice, access to social and economic opportunities, enhanced services and amenities for a resident population of some 1.65m people in the metropolitan area by 2031.
The Park West - Cherry Orchard LAP lands form part of the City Centre and South Western strategic corridors. Within the city centre, industrial and underutilised lands are identified for the creation of new sustainable communities that support the continued growth of Dublin as the primary business and retail core. The consolidation and western expansion of the city can be achieved through the development of strategically located sites, linked to increased capacity and electrified services on the Kildare rail corridor, to be delivered by 2027. In this context, the LAP seeks to support the delivery of the RSES.
In April 2016, the Transport Strategy released by the National Transport Authority (NTA) was adopted by the Minister. The Strategy will guide decisions on transport throughout the region and will contribute to the economic, social and cultural progress of the Greater Dublin Area (GDA) by providing for the efficient, effective and sustainable movement of people and goods. For the Metropolitan Area, development will be consolidated to achieve a more compact urban form. The Strategy is consistent with the public transport funding priorities and projects set out under the National Development Plan 2018-2027.
This transport strategy outlines proposals for the development of transport infrastructure in terms of road, rail, walking and cycling. With respect to the Park West - Cherry Orchard area, proposals include:
The Transport Strategy places a great emphasis on the integration of land use and transport as a means of:
Plans at the local level should promote walking, cycling and public transport, with new development fully permeable for walking and cycling and providing filtered permeability for private vehicles, that is, with access available but restricting or discouraging through trips.
As required under the Planning and Development Act, the Park West - Cherry Orchard LAP must be consistent with the ‘Transport Strategy for the Greater Dublin Area’.
The purpose of the retail strategy is to guide the activities and policies for retail planning across Dublin and the Mid East Region and to set out a coordinated, sustainable approach to the assessment and provision of retail within the GDA. This is to ensure retail is provided in tandem with population growth on suitable sites, and in areas of proven need, and to safeguard existing town centres from potential detrimental impacts.
The central key objective arising from the overall vision is to promote the vitality and viability of town centres by:
The hierarchy and policy of the strategy re-confirms the role of Dublin City Centre as the prime retailing centre for the Greater Dublin Area. Within the suburban areas it supports the development and expansion of the ‘Prime Urban Centres’, now Key District Centres, as locations of employment, retail, community and supporting services and in this regard nearby Ballyfermot is designated as a Level 3, District Centre. Within close proximity to the LAP area in the South Dublin County Council administrative area is Liffey Valley which is designated as a Level 2, Major Town Centre. The retail strategy identifies Neighbourhood Centres as Level 4 in the hierarchy and highlights the importance of such facilities to the needs of the surrounding local population.
The Dublin City Development Plan 2016-2022 provides a clear spatial framework to guide the future growth and development of the city in a coherent, orderly and sustainable way, framed on a vision of sustainable city living and a Core Strategy seeking a :
The Development Plan incorporates the Core Strategy principles into the settlement strategy which prioritises the inner city, Key District Centres (KDC) and Strategic Development and Regeneration Areas (SDRA), as the focus for investment and growth in order to achieve infrastructural and service delivery integration. The Park West-Cherry Orchard area is a designated Strategic Development and Regeneration Area. Table E of the City Development Plan 2016-2022 estimates the Park West - Cherry Orchard area as capable of delivering in the region of 2,000 new residential units.
There are eighteen areas of the city that have been identified as being capable of significant mixed-use developments to regenerate their respective areas.
The majority of SDRAs relate to a zoning objective which seeks “the social, economic, physical development or rejuvenation of an area with residential, employment and mixed uses” (Z14). These areas have substantial development capacity, not only for residential uses.
The Development Plan priorities the renewal and regeneration of these areas and sets out guiding principles for their development. In this regard, the principles for Park West - Cherry Orchard (SDRA No. 4) to be incorporated into the LAP are as follows (Section 15.1.1.2 of the 2016 City Development Plan):
The overarching aim of the Dublin City Biodiversity Action Plan 2015-2020, is the conservation of biodiversity within the City. There are a number of threats to the City’s biodiversity including Invasive Species, impacts of Climate Change, habitat loss, pollution, and human behaviour. The Biodiversity Action Plan includes a number of actions and objectives and seeks to achieve the following:
The Local Economic and Community Plan (LECP) is a statutory plan prepared under the Local Government Reform Act 2014 and sets out high levels goals, objectives and actions needed to promote and support economic development and local and community development over the six year period of the LECP. The focus is on the social and economic issues that can be addressed by the City Council, local businesses, community organisations and state bodies.
The Dublin City LECP 2016-2021 was adopted by the City Council in December 2015 setting out the twelve high level goals for the lifetime of the Plan, which have been incorporated into Section 2.2.4.1 of the Development Plan. The 2017 Action Plan prepared under this Plan included a number of actions including an objective to carry out a Cherry Orchard Sustainable Development Plan by Dublin City Council and Ballyfermot Chapelizod Partnership. This was completed in the form of the ‘Making Cherry Orchard Better’ area action plan which was approved by Elected Members in 2017 (See Below).
A non-statutory Social, Economic and Infrastructure Action Plan was prepared by the South Central Area Office of Dublin City Council in conjunction with the Ballyfermot Chapelizod Partnership. The plan, which focuses on community, social, policing, education and employment issues, was the subject of a detailed consultation and local engagement process.
The vision statement for this social and economic renewal action plan is:
“To create, at its heart, a content, caring and vibrant sustainable community, which caters for the employment, community and environmental needs of existing and future generations”
The plan sets out a series of key principles and actions and provides a framework for community renewal. It also includes proposals for the creation of a new village centre on the vacant site to the west of Barnville estate and the potential for a community and social enterprise hub to the south of St. Ultan’s school. The action plan was presented and approved by the South Central Area Committee in September 2017.
The LAP area boundary adjoins the administrative boundary of South Dublin County Council to the North, South and West. To the north of the Cherry Orchard Hospital and the Ballyfermot Road there is a mix of Regeneration and Enterprise and Employment zoned lands. The M50 motorway forms the western boundary of the LAP area and separates Park West and Cherry Orchard from the Collinstown and Ronanstown areas within the South Dublin County Council jurisdiction. Immediately to the south of the Park West area is the Grand Canal which is designated as a Proposed National Heritage (pNHA) area, while further to the south is Enterprise and Employment zoned land.
In December 2018, South Dublin County Council commenced the formal process to amend the zoning objective of approximately 178 hectares of land from zoning objective EE (Enterprise and Employment) to objective REGEN (Regeneration) under the “Proposed Variation No. 3 - Zoning Amendment to Lands at Ballymount / Naas Road”, See Fig 9.These lands are located in the Ballymount / Naas Road area, which are south of the Grand Canal and east of the M50, adjoining the boundary with Dublin City Council. The proposed variation seeks a plan led approach, including provision for a new Local Area Plan, to provide a framework for the sequential and phased development of these lands. The closing date for public submissions on this (amended) variation was 29th March 2019.
The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government published guidelines for the making of effective local area plans and a manual to assist in the preparation of Local Area Plans. Both of these publications have been considered during the preparation of this LAP.
Environmental assessment of the Local Area Plan will be carried out under the following three processes and is set out in three separate documents: