An Irish Planning Students Blog

How odd Fagan seems to be happy enough with the banks after all the trouble they have caused and believes planners should not be trusted!? Yet another person trying to fuel disenchantment  of planning!

The great experiment by our planners to copy the European tradition of having middle income families live in apartments has largely failed, writes JACK FAGAN

THE PRESENT slump in the property market is bound to prompt a rethink on the type of new homes to be built in future in Dublin’s outer suburbs as well as in adjoining towns and villages.

With a huge oversupply of apartments currently lying empty in the greater Dublin area – as well as elsewhere in the commuter belt – the onus will be on local authorities and the construction industry to look again at the overall planning strategy and examine how they could have got it so terribly wrong.

Even with price reductions of 40 and 50 per cent and all electrical appliances included, it is likely to take years to shift thousands of newly completed apartments simply because buyers prefer houses to apartments. The exception is Dublin city centre where young people are still snapping up some of the available apartments because of their convenience and easy access to a vibrant lifestyle.

Even those directly involved in the construction industry will have been surprised by a recent study which showed that, of 15,000 new homes for sale in the greater Dublin area (taking in parts of Meath, Kildare, Louth and Wicklow), no fewer than 12,500 of them are apartments.

(more…)

The government’s proposed 80% tax on land as part of Nama is doomed to be withdrawn in due course because it will produce no revenue, writes Bill Nowlan

The 80% levy on land will significantly delay the recovery of the land market, reduce current market values even more and act as a significant obstacle to Nama selling land.

In addition to this tax, the Green Party now has a proposal for a ‘site development tax’ – whatever that means. I fully support the concept of a tax on the windfall gain in the value of land, but such tax must be fair and practical in the way that it works.

What is required in Ireland is carefully crafted comprehensive legislation to tax the betterment (an increase in value) in land rather than to bolt on ad-hoc changes to our current piecemeal system. We need to stand back and work out comprehensively how to integrate a land tax system with our urban planning system and stop applying ad-hoc and expedient sticking plasters to what is a very complex issue.

Over several decades, many countries have tried various approaches to capturing this betterment with greater or lesser degrees of success. We should learn from their experiences and choose a system for Ireland that is appropriate and workable.

The Dutch have a system whereby no land is rezoned unless it is firstly acquired by the planning authority. The betterment accrues to the planning authority and is used to pay for services and other infrastructure, including schools and so on. However, the Dutch have, in parallel with their planning system, an elaborate land management process for subdividing and servicing the land and then parcelling it out to developers which includes CPO powers.

Some American states have a system whereby the developer has to prepare an ‘economic impact analysis’ when he proposes a scheme of development and then has to pay all the community’s costs relating to his new scheme, including schools, policing etc.

The British have had several attempts at capturing betterment. The world-recognised bible of betterment theory is the British Uthwatt Report of 1942. This proposed that all betterment created by development would go to the state through taxation linked to the granting of planning permission. This proposal was incorporated in the UK’s 1947 Planning Act but was found to be unworkable in practice and was withdrawn seven years later.

The British returned to the Uthwatt principles in 1967 and introduced a central land authority known as the ‘Land Commission’ that was supposed to acquire all development land at existing use value and then pass it on for developing at a price that included most of the betterment. The theory was great but the execution was awful.

After three years the scheme was scrapped because it was creating a shortage of new housing. Various other land taxation attempts were tried in the 1970s (Development Gain Tax in 1974, the Community Land Act in 1975 and the Development Land Tax Act in 1976). The British now have an ad-hoc negotiated betterment system called Section 106, with agreements attached to the granting of planning permission whereby part of the ‘development gain’ is captured so long as it is related to ‘infrastructure’ and affordable housing costs directly related to the development. They are currently looking at modifying and regularising this under a community infrastructure levy following on from proposals in the Barker Report.

Our own Kenny Report of the 1970s proposed that all development land would be acquired by local authorities at existing use value plus 25%. This was again wonderful in theory but was recognised as being impractical. The Kenny concept was re-examined in 2005 by a select committee of the Dáil, which re- confirmed its impracticality. The argument for value capture / betterment was accepted by the committee but a mechanism was not decided upon.

Part of the detail of any new comprehensive taxation system is that it must integrate with our development levy system currently in operation under our planning laws.

Levies are a form of betterment tax but aim solely at recovering the actual costs of providing services. These do work and work well. We currently have a second betterment tax in the form of Part V our Planning Act which requires developers to give up to 20% of their land for social housing at existing use value.

This is now becoming a bit of a monster, requiring the state to purchase houses from developers at above market value.

I am advocating that instead of introducing an 80% CGT tax which would just halt the land market and make Nama’s problem bigger, that a properly structured and comprehensive betterment tax system be introduced.

A properly structured betterment tax of 30% to 50% on the increase in land values and integrated with or replacing a levy system would be a reasonable balance that would achieve the following:

* Ensure a supply of land but not stop the market working

* Capture not just the betterment in land that is the subject of new rezoning but also land that may already be zoned.

* Ensure that the funds secured by this tax go to provide local services including schools and other social infrastructure

* Create a system that is accepted as being fair by landowners, developers, politicians and the public and which will stand the test of time.

However, the detail designing a system will take thorough research. My suggestion is that the 80% tax proposal is suspended and that a Peter Bacon-type report on the options, permutations and combinations for a workable system of taxation of development land is commissioned and then quickly implemented.

Now is the time to do it while the speculation in land is at its nadir and minds are open for fundamental change.

Bill Nowlan is a chartered surveyor and runs a property asset management advisory consultancy

November 8, 2009

Sunday Tribune

A new report presented to Dublin City Council says that retail activity in the city centre has been in decline since April 2008.

The report was prepared as the local authority decided to review its ‘Bus Gate’ traffic management system, which has had a dramatic adverse impact on retail trade in the city centre — particularly late-night shopping.

On the north side, footfall declined by 14 per cent in September compared with September last year. In reality, the fall-off on the north side may be worse, because the analysis includes O’Connell Street which is also a transport hub, so footfall figures may include people who are not shoppers.

On the south side, the decline is even sharper, at 19 per cent for the same period.

Thursday night shopping was seriously hit by the Bus Gate system, which banned cars from College Green during the morning and evening rush hours.

In September this year, footfall on Thursday nights in the Grafton Street area was down 36 per cent compared with September 2008.

Dublin city councillors have now voted to lift the ban on private cars passing through the area from November 18 to January 15.

Environment Minister and Green Party leader John Gormleydescribed the decision to temporarily scale back the Bus Gate as “a retrograde step”.

Meanwhile, luxury retailer Brown Thomas has moved to streamline management and administration costs as exceptionally tough conditions continue in the retail sector.

Under the plan, human resources, information technology and the finance departments of Brown Thomas in Ireland andSelfridges & Co in the UK will be merged.

The Sunday Independent understands there are no plans for cuts to the “front of house” workforce.

The move to amalgamate back-office services follows the decision by Canadian billionaireGalen Weston to reinstall BT’s deputy chairman Paul Kelly to head up the Irish operation.

Former managing director Nigel Blow left the company in September.

In a statement to the Sunday Independent, Brown Thomas said: “Following the recent appointment of Paul Kelly, chief executive of Selfridges & Co, as deputy chairman of BrownThomas Group, a review of internal administrative structures has been initiated.

“The HR, finance and IT functions for both companies will now be merged to ensure the most efficient alignment of their resources and to take full advantage of the economic recovery when it comes,” the company added.

- JEROME REILLY

Sunday Independent

The rich and famous inhabitants of Dalkey in south Co Dublincould be hosting a halting site as well as major commercial development on their coastline if the local council gets its way.

Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown Co Council is proposing to zone the coastal area at Bullock Harbour in Dalkey — where Pat Kennylives — for commercial and residential development, and ‘traveller accommodation’.

The council — which recently caused controversy after allowing the demolition of the historic train terminal on Carlisle Pier in Dun Laoghaire Harbour — is proposing to re-zone Bullock Harbour, reversing a Green Party motion to protect the harbour as a heritage amenity.

The new proposal by the council would allow for major development on Pat Kenny’s doorstep, including advertising structures, hotels, offices, public house, commercial and residential development, retirement home “science- and technology-based industry”, a school or church as well as ‘travellers’ accommodation’.

The proposal reverses a motion by former Green Party Councillor Gene Feighery in March this year and which was passed by the council, proposing the preservation of the harbour.

That motion also stated that any development in Bullock, the oldest working harbour in the country and first referred to in annals in 1152 when it was run by Cistercian monks, should be limited to open space and recreational activity.

Ms Feighery said yesterday: “This is absolutely astounding. The council adopted a motion before the last (local government) election. They all supported me then with an election coming up. Well, it’s five years away to an election and they are prepared to let this happen.”

The only concession between the council’s old proposals and the new one is that the new proposed zoning excludes a nightclub or disco.

The council is already involved in controversy over its decision to allow Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company to demolish the 150-year-old train terminal at Carlisle Pier which is now to be a car park. The old pier was the main exit point for Ireland’s emigrants and where many historic events have taken place.

An Taisce and Cairan Cuffe of the Green Party opposed the decision to allow the demolition of the railway station saying it was not, as claimed by the council and Harbour Company, “exempt” from planning permission, but without success.

However, Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown Co Council has now admitted that they may have “uncertainty” in relation to the decision.

The council said: “The initial view of the Planning Authority was that the proposed works were exempt and did not require a grant of planning permission. This view was communicated, in good faith, to Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company.

“However, on more detailed examination, following the lodgement of two Section five Declaration applications, the Planning Authority formed the view that there was, in fact, uncertainty in relation to the planning status of the works.

“Consequently, acting on planning advice, it was decided on October 6, 2009, to refer the matter for decision to An Bord Pleanala, under Section Five (Four) of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended. In these circumstances it was agreed not to issue a declaration on the two Section Five applications, but to await the decision of An Bord Pleanala.”

If An Bord Pleanala were to decide that the old train station was demolished without proper permission, the Harbour Company could be directed to reinstate it.

- JIM CUSACK

Sunday Independent

Lets hope the ESB will speed up the connection of wind farms in the future. This industry appears to have great potential for employment in the future and who knows if we get it right we could make a good deal of money from selling the extra electricity we dont use.

I would also like to mention that an explosion of on shore windfarms may not be welcomed as well, as one would think.  Because lets face it, they can be seen from a fare distance away, they ain’t small!! I know EIS’s can be a right pain to get right, but they all come together to allow the authorities to make a better judgement of these turbines on the people and the land. Maybe offshore is a much better way to go? Sure there some proper winds out of the west cost.

Floating Wind Farms thats what we need, move them around over the contential shelf like the oil rigs do!

Good to see so much money will be invested though.

SOME €300 billion is set to be invested in European offshore windfarms over the next 20 years, according to a new report from wind turbine manufacturer Siemens.

The company, which recently signed contracts to supply up to 500 wind turbines for Dong Energy’s offshore windfarms in northern Europe, said there were existing commitments from investors for about 100 gigawatts (100,000 mega watts) across the continent.

At an installation cost cost of about €3 million per mega watt, Siemens said the total potential investment was in the order of €300 billion.

The company warned however that Ireland’s system of queuing projects for “gate” connections to the national grid meant Ireland would not be quick to achieve a significant share of the potential.

Currently the Republic has five offshore windfarms in the pipeline with a potential generating capacity of 2,655 mega watts, representing potential investment of almost €7 billion.

The next allocation of grid connections, known as Gate III, is due by next year. According to the Irish Wind Energy Association, though, Gate III is likely to give permissions for grid connections timed for about 2016.

Association chief executive Michael Walsh said some of the projects which might be approved under Gate III had been in the pipeline since 2004. To be in the pipeline since 2004 with a possible offer next year, and a potential connection in 2016, represented too much uncertainty over too long a time, he said.

Mr Walsh said, taking onshore and offshore wind proposals together, “there is about eight gigawatts in development, with a potential investment value of €16 billion to €18 billion”. About 3.9 giga watts were expected to be sanctioned by Gate III, he said.

A Department of Energy source acknowledged the difficulty but referred to plans by EirGrid to double the grid capacity under a €4 billion investment, by 2025.

The source also said it was planned to transfer control of the foreshore from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of the Environment in a bid to expedite the planning process for off-shore installations.

“We must upgrade the grid,” the source added. “There are parts of the country, usually where the wind is, where the network would not support the connection. Also we want to streamline planning and control so connections are ready and licences can be awarded like those for oil and gas.”
Source: IRISHTIMES

Only noticed this in saturdays irish times today. This article was accompanied with images of the Viaduc de Millau, which I had the pleasure of crossing the year it opened to the public. A truly intriguing  experience driving above the clouds in the early morning! You won’t experience anything like it!

HERITAGE & HABITAT: NOW THAT “development” is a dirty word in Ireland,  and building projects are too often seen in the light of destruction rather than construction, there is one kind of building project that is still a good thing – almost a morally good thing – and that’s bridges, writes GEMMA TIPTON

It’s easy to get carried away by bridges, but with Irish architects winning competitions to build bridges around the world, and global architects creating new ones here, it’s time we all started celebrating the not-so-humble bridge. Where does the morality come in? Can bridges be moral? If you can ascribe such qualities to inanimate objects, I believe they are – how else could you view such a means for bringing people together, closing distances, and linking communities, countries, and sometimes even continents? Take the Oresund, which you can see from the air as you fly into Copenhagen. It was opened in the year 2000, and spreads out like a dancing ribbon across the sea, connecting Denmark and Sweden for the first time since the Ice Age. Then there’s the Bosphorus Bridge that joins Europe and Asia. Venus Williams once played a tennis match here, against Turkish player Ipek Senoglu, it only lasted five minutes, but was the first tennis game in history to span two continents. Perhaps more excitingly (Europe and Asia already being attached by land elsewhere) is the proposed Bering Straits Bridge, which would link Asia, Africa and Europe with North and South America — meaning you could drive around much of the world. The Bering Straits Bridge proposition has been around for a while, and at the same time as the dreamers are planning their bridges, their perhaps more practical colleagues are thinking of tunnels. Tunnels also do their work of joining and bringing together, but they don’t seem to have the romance of bridges. Novelist JG Ballard put it best, when he was asked about the, then newly-opened, Channel Tunnel: he agreed it was amazing, but imagine . . . he said. Imagine if it had been a bridge.

In Ireland we have some pretty good bridges – although no world-beaters yet. Sir Edwin Lutyens’s plan to build the Hugh Lane Gallery as a bridge across the Liffey might well have been one, had it gone ahead. Instead, we have the beloved Ha’penny bridge spanning the Liffey, as well as, among others, O’Connell Bridge – actually two bridges side by side, and almost as wide as it is long. Further north there is the Boyne Bridge, which glows an ethereal blue at night, and, possibly the most beautiful of the new, soaring breed of bridges: the Foyle Bridge in Derry, which although it has to close in high winds, seems to be like an inspiration for the imagination to start to soar.

Opening later this year in this country is the Suir Bridge, which will help the N25 bypass Waterford. Regulars of Waterford’s traffic jams might find this thrilling enough on its own, but the Suir Bridge, designed by Spanish firm Carlos Fernández Casado, is a pretty glorious feat. The pylon holding the cable-stays took two years to build and is almost twice the height of Liberty Hall. Hang out with bridge-fanciers for a while, and you hear an awful lot of statistics and comparisons, as people wax lyrical about arches, spans, tonnes of reinforced concrete and numbers of rivets. Perhaps it’s their way of coming to terms with all that majesty and wonder.

Le viaduc de Millau France
Originally uploaded by filip42

It all starts to make sense when you come across a bridge like the Millau Viaduct. It’s the tallest in the world, taller than the Eiffel Tower, and it floats in the clouds as it crosses the Tarn Valley in France. It’s architect, Norman Foster, said he wanted it to have “the delicacy of a butterfly”, and people have said that driving across it is like “flying a car” – and they go there to do just that. Traveling to see amazing bridges has a distinguished history. Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Clifton Suspension Bridge, and Thomas Telford’s Menai both drew the Victorian crowds when they were built – the Menai actually being a direct response to the Act of Union in 1800, as suddenly there was more traffic between the ports of Ireland and Wales. Brunel’s Clifton Suspension Bridge, has the additional, unfortunate distinction of being a spot for suicides, and plaques along the bridge display the Samaritans’ phone number. In 1885, however, a 22-year-old woman was saved from her plunge by her skirts, which caught the wind and acted as a parachute. Sarah Ann Henley lived on into her 80s.

While people travel to bridges, bridges have been known to travel too — famously London Bridge, which millionaire Robert McCulloch bought and transported, brick by brick, to Arizona in 1962. Ireland’s other newest bridge has traveled too: Santiago Calatrava’s Beckett Bridge floated, fully formed, into Dublin on a barge from Rotterdam earlier this year, and will be open for business in early 2010. I’m not completely convinced by the Beckett Bridge, the architect insists it looks like a harp, in deference to Ireland, but I think it looks like a great many of his other bridges – lovely, but by no means unique.

Meanwhile, Irish architects Heneghan Peng are building bridges abroad – one at Mittelrheinbruecke, in the Rhine Valley, on a site famed for its beauty; and the other, a footbridge for the 2012 London Olympics. Heneghan Peng’s German bridge is a thin sliver in the landscape, and like the best bridges, doesn’t detract from its setting. Some actually add to theirs – framing views in valleys, and giving new ones from their decks. One such will be Buro Happold’s winning design for the proposed Metro West across Liffey Valley – proving that sometimes man and nature can work in harmony. And finally, now is our last chance to see (for 2009 at least) the gorgeous, and a little scary, Carrick-a-rede rope bridge near Ballintoy, Co Antrim. It is taken down at the end of October/beginning of November every year, and goes up again in March.

Stunning And Romantic

Millau Viaduct , Tarn Valley: flying a car above the clouds in France.

Golden Gate Bridge , San Francisco: iconic, mist shrouded, it was once the longest suspension bridge in the world.

Oresund , Denmark/Sweden: connecting countries separated since the Ice Age.

Ponte Dom Luis: Porto, in Portugal, is famed for its bridges, but this one proves that iron work can be wonderful.

Clifton Suspension Bridge : turned Bristol into a Victorian tourist attraction.

Pont Neuf: the “new bridge” is now the oldest in Paris

Charles Bridge: begun in the 14th Century, a Prague tourist attraction

Rialto Bridge: all the bridges of Venice are romantic, but this one stands out.

Five-pavilion Bridge, Beijing: the Chinese are brilliant at bridges, and this one is very special.

Ponte Vecchio: the only one of Florence’s bridges not to be blown up by the Nazis. Hitler deemed it too beautiful.

Source: IRISHTIMES

This look’s pretty sweet, for the electricity network. Hopefully it will be fully utilized for exporting all the wind energy that we have already built and in the pipeline.  Who know’s maybe one day we could become a wind energy giant with the west coast as just one big massive wind farm!

NATIONAL ELECTRICITY network operator Eirgrid yesterday got the green light for its planned €600 million power link between Wales and Ireland.

Eirgrid said that An Bord Pleanála has given it permission to build an interconnector between the east coast and north Wales that will transmit electricity between Britain and Ireland.

The interconnector will have the capacity to carry 500 megawatts of electricity, roughly the same amount as of that generated by a medium-sized power plant.

According to Eirgrid, this is enough power to supply 300,000 homes. The project will require an investment of €600 million. Its construction will create about 100 jobs and work will be finished in 2012.

The grid operator has hired Swedish company ABB to carry out the work. The firm manufactures cables, switches and most equipment needed by electricity transmission systems. It also designs and builds the systems itself.

The interconnector will link Deeside in north Wales and Woodland in Co Meath, where Eirgrid operates a substation. It will come ashore close to Rush, Co Dublin.

Eirgrid, a State agency, applied to An Bord Pleanála’s strategic infrastructure division for permission to build the interconnector. Eirgrid chief executive Dermot Byrne described the planning board’s decision as a major milestone, and added that the project will be delivered on time.

“As an island of five million people that is over 90 per cent dependent on imported fossil fuels for our energy, we have an immediate and pressing need to improve our security of supply, and to enhance our capacity to generate renewable energy. The east-west interconnector will help us do both,” he said.

The Irish Times

We shall see how it goes!