No additional lands to be brought forward for rezoning

Contrary to some expectations, the Bacon Report recommends that no additional lands beyond those already zoned or In advance of completion of its guidelines, any proposals to change a county development plan in the Dublin or mid-east regions "should be guided strictly" by the Department of the Environment's Sustainable Development Strategy, published last April.

Where it can be "demonstrated clearly" that lands currently zoned for other uses are either inappropriate or surplus to requirements - such as land zoned for industry in Docklands - the report says preference should be given to their development for housing.

The development potential of areas with existing or proposed high-quality public transport links should also be made a priority, it says, adding that public transport links to other areas of the mid-east region with substantial residential land banks should be improved.

If the potential of housing land is to be realised effectively, the report says a "considerable investment" will be needed to develop roads, sewerage and water facilities as well as social infrastructure such as schools, public transport and amenities.

It says last year's Serviced Land Initiative, under which £15 million was set aside for the period 1998-2000, was an "important step." Combined with local authority development levies, it would lead to £37.5 million being spent in this period.

The report proposes that funding under the scheme should be increased to allow more projects to proceed, particularly in the Dublin region. For larger schemes, it recommends that a public/private partnership approach should be adopted without delay.

It says the partnership route, which would reduce the financial burden on the Exchequer for servicing development land, "seems the obvious mechanism to employ to ensure that zoned lands waiting in the pipeline to be serviced are immediately brought on stream".

However, it says private sector participation needs go beyond finance to include risk-sharing, project design and management - following the successful model of the City West business park on the Naas Road. Planning authorities also need to spell out their objectives clearly.

In some cases, where the provision of a new road infrastructure is the main constraint and cannot be funded within the current programme for non-national roads, it says additional resources should be made available on a similar basis to the Serviced Land Initiative.

The Government has agreed to allocate an additional £15 million to finance the initiative, bringing Exchequer funding up to £30 million. A further £5 million is being made available to local authorities for targeted road infrastructure improvements.

It also says the Department of the Environment would "now identify water and sewerage schemes that might be suitable for execution by way of public/private partnerships."