Cork County Development Plan
The Draft Cork County Development Plan in 2021 has been prepared in accordance with the provisions of the Planning and Development Act 2000 and has now been publicly displayed for 10 weeks for public consultation up until midnight on Thursday 1st July 2021. This draft plan will replace the current County Development Plan (2014), the current 8 Municipal District Local Area Plans 2017, and the current Clonakilty, Cobh, Fermoy, Kinsale, Macroom, Mallow, Midleton, Skibbereen, and Youghal former Town Council Town Development Plans.
Cork County Council is inviting interested individuals and community members to give feedback and observations about the Draft Plan in a virtual public consultation. Feedback and observations about the Draft Plan can be made between the 22nd April 2021 until midnight on Thursday 1st July 2021.
What Is The Draft County Development Plan?
This plan sets out the overall strategy for the planning and sustainable development of the County while taking into account national and regional level plans, government policy, and statutory guidelines.
There are seven volumes in this Draft Plan. These volumes are:
Volume One - Main Policy Material
Volume Two - Heritage and Amenity
Volume Three - North Cork: Fermoy and Kanturk Mallow Municipal Districts
Volume Four - South Cork: Carrigaline, Cobh, East Cork, and Macroom Municipal Districts
Volume Five - West Cork: Bandon Kinsale and West Cork Municipal Districts
Volume Six - Environmental Reports
Volume Seven - Maps
What You Need To Know About The Plan
The new Cork County Development Plan sets out all the important policy objectives and the overall strategy for the planning and sustainable development of the County over the planned period. This period is from 2022 to 2028. The core principle of the plan is sustainability and there is a focus on creating vibrant, liveable, climate resistant communities.
The development plan focuses on quality of life principles which are sustainability, climate action, social inclusion, placemaking, and resilience.
Sustainability – This principle can be defined as development which meets the needs of today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This plan uses sustainability by encouraging the integration of economic, environmental, social, and cultural issues into the objectives to make sure everyone’s needs are being met.
Climate Action – This plan supports the delivery of meaningful action on climate change through the use of the NPF compact growth agenda at the local level. This includes land-use, transportation, and sustainable management of the environment including biodiversity. This plan focuses on climate action so the adverse effects of climate change can be adapted to so the impacts of climate change can be reduced and resilience can be increased to the future impacts of climate change.
Social Inclusion – This affects the wellbeing of all individuals in the County, including community members and the public. This plan wants to create a more socially inclusive society by providing good quality affordable housing, community infrastructure, and improving the access to information and resources.
Placemaking – This plan promotes high quality design by encouraging its integration into every aspect of the plan. Good quality design adds more value to places where citizens live, work, and enjoy themselves.
Resilience – This principle is built into the plan to make sure that the community can recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner.
What The Plan Aims To Do
The Cork County Development Plan aims to shape the future growth of Cork County and help with the sustainable long-term development of the County. This plan is going to build on the successes of the previous plan and strengthen the strategic advantage of the County.
Plan for and support the sustainable long-term development of the County.
Ensure the future wellbeing of the residents of the County in strong inclusive communities. Some of the ways this will be done include:
Supporting sustainable economic vibrancy of the built and natural environments.
Improving the quality of built and natural environments and protecting them.
Promoting and improving the quality of life and public health.
Facilitate and encourage innovation to drive sustainable development.
Continue to influence regional and national planning and development policies.
Development of socially and economically balanced sustainable rural and urban communities.
Incorporating sustainable development, climate change mitigation and adaptation, social inclusion, high quality design, and resilience as the core principles of the Development plan.
Strategic Planning Areas For The Development Plan
Cork County is a large area and is diverse so it requires a strategy that can carefully match the individual potential of the different areas that make up the County. This plan sets out the County’s strategy in relation to four ‘Strategic Sub Areas’ that reflect the socio-economic, cultural, and environmental issues that are present in the County. These ‘Strategic Sub Areas’ are:
County Metropolitan Cork Strategic Planning Area – This includes the parts of Metropolitan Cork that fall within the County Council’s administrative area. This area consists of the ‘Metropolitan Towns’ of Carrigaline, Carrigtwohill, Cobh, Midleton, and Passage West, the new town at Monard, and the surrounding villages and rural areas.
Greater Cork Ring Strategic Planning Area – This area is outside Metropolitan Cork and includes the town of Mallow, and the ring towns of Bandon, Fermoy, Kinsale, Macroom, and Youghal. Each of these towns have smaller villages within them and small settlements and individual dwellings.
North Cork Strategic Planning Area – This area includes the towns of Buttevant, Charleville, Kanturk, Millstreet, Mitchelstown, and Newmarket. Each of these towns also have smaller villages within them and small settlements and individual dwellings.
West Cork Strategic Planning Area – This area includes the town of Clonakilty and the County Towns of Bantry, Castletownbere, Dunmanway, Schull, and Skibbereen. These towns have smaller villages within them and small settlements and individual dwellings.
The Public Consultation Institute of Ireland (PCII) is committed to engaging citizens and empowering communities through the use of emerging technologies, which are transforming how the Government and citizens communicate and interact. PCII’s mission is to bring more people into the public participatory process. Not only will this expand informed public engagement, early studies suggest that it is likely to enhance the diversity and quality of partipartipation. View a list of public consultations currently open at www.publicconsultation.ie
