Simon Coveney blocks plans for Kildare houses

Minister for Housing Simon Coveney has stymied plans for the development of more than 365 houses in north Kildare, about 10km from the Dublin border.

Mr Coveney has ordered Kildare County Council to reverse its decision to rezone lands near Sallins for residential use because the town was "significantly over-zoned" for housing.

The council last December published a draft area plan for Sallins which proposed zoning 36 acres for parks and recreational use, three acres for community and educational facilities and 30 acres for housing.

The following month the Department of the Environment wrote to the council warning that it was not in compliance with the planning Acts or its own county development plan. A target of 260 new homes had been set for Sallins up to 2022, and the department said the new zoning had the potential to add more than 365 extra homes on an area that was “peripheral and greenfield” in nature.

Leapfrogging

The department said the development, which would be to the northeast of the town and 1.5km from Sallins station, would be contrary to the sequential approach to development which discourages “leapfrogging” to remote areas.

However, last March councillors voted overwhelmingly to go ahead with the zoning. The council was then notified the Minister intended to overturn the zoning. The draft ministerial order was released for public consultation in April, and more than 2,000 submissions were received. All but one – from An Taisce – opposed the Minister’s intention to reverse the zoning.

In a letter to the council this week, which accompanied his order to revoke the zoning, Mr Coveney said Sallins had been excessively zoned for housing in the past.

The recently published Government plan for housing had “the acceleration of delivery of additional housing to meet rising demand” at its “heart”, Mr Coveney said, but there was a need to ensure housing was properly planned.

“I have responsibility to ensure the excessive zoning that occurred in the past in some parts of the country is not repeated.” He said the need for recreational and community facilities for Sallins should be “dealt with expeditiously by Kildare County Council”.

Package

Local Fianna Fáil TD

James Lawless

said the zoning had been “part of a package” that would bring much-needed facilities to the town. “Everybody in Sallins understands the problems of over-zoning, but that horse has bolted,” he said.

“Sallins went from 500 to 5,000 people in the last 15 years with no accompanying amenities. This plan offered a concrete proposal to actually deliver lands for those amenities.”