South Dublin County Draft Development Plan 2022- 2028
Additional submission from South Dublin Chamber.
South Dublin Chamber is the recognised business organisation for South Dublin County and has members in every town and business park / industrial estate in the county.
We see our primary role as an advocate for sustainable-economic growth that adds value to the lives of the communities that live, work study, and visit in our county now and into the future.
We made our submission to the initial Public Consultation on the County Development Plan on the 25th September 2020 and highlighted our full support for many initiatives outlined in the plan and we look forward to working in partnership with South Dublin County Council on the realisation of these objectives over the life time of this plan 2022-2028.
South Dublin County Council plays a critical and vital role in the economic development of our county and as previously highlighted in our earlier submission we do have concerns relating to public transport connectivity with our major towns of Lucan- Clondalkin and Tallaght. As outlined in the development Plan we share the Councils response to the generation of increasing and diversified housing stock and compliment the council on its work with the relevant agencies to safeguard and future proof water, drainage and electricity services.
The success and the ongoing work on the county’s SDZs in Adamstown and Clonburris are strong positives, and we welcome the N7 regeneration plans.
Investment to date and that which is highlighted in the development plan relating to tourism in particular the infrastructure needs for tourism to grow is very welcome and points to a belief by local government in the growth potential of this sector of business.
Zoning EE – “To provide for Enterprise and Employment uses
The covid pandemic has shaken all of society and business is no exception as we slowly recovery from its worse impact we are starting to see changes in our business community. The biggest change that we are seeing locally is the desire by local businesses to expand locally. Following representations from several business regarding the challenges in doing this we followed up with local business parks to assess the situation.
The situation appears that based on current demand Fonthill, Citywest, Baldonnell, Greenogue, South City and Whitestown business parks are at capacity with little zoned land remaining for new development. Within the county there is not sufficientlands zoned EE – “To provide for Enterprise and Employment uses” to cater for the existing businesses seeking to expand or for inward investment of new businesses in the medium let alone long term.
It is also noted that the traditional industrial estates which are near or are at capacity do not have the available zoning land to cater for regeneration displacement which may occur during the plan. The proposals for regeneration of the lands between the M50 and the county boundary to the east, also between the Grand Canal and Walkinstown, cannot be realised until sufficient viable alternative “EE” zoned lands are available.
Our concern is twofold, how do existing business expand in the areas they are currently located and how do we optimise our county’s location with the shift in business patterns and business land use caused by Covid, Brexit and internet shopping.
Increased business growth will continue to provide more and greater employment opportunities for the communities in our county and provide much needed increased local taxation base for the further development of our county’s social and economic infrastructure.
We therefore strongly advocate the rezoning of additional land for enterprise and employment generating use in the consideration of the Draft South Dublin County Council Development Plan 2022-2028.
The Chamber does not in any way suggest or comment on what lands might fulfil this purpose, we just ask the development plan to take this increased demand into account when setting out the land use requirements for the county for 2022-2028.
ends