4.3 Defining a Settlement Typology

4.3 Defining a Settlement Typology

The NPF sets the policy parameters for the Region to better manage the growth of Dublin as a city of international scale supported by the growth of the key Regional Growth Centres of Athlone, Dundalk and Drogheda, which form the upper two tiers in the settlement hierarchy. To achieve effective regional development, Dublin and the Regional Growth Centres will be supported by the complementary development and regeneration of a small number of selected Key Towns.

Population and employment size are not the sole determinant of a settlement’s functional role or in the consideration of its strategic regional significance. Some towns with a large population base located within the catchment of Dublin have emerged mainly as commuting towns, with a level of function significantly lower than their population base. Conversely, other towns have a level of function higher than their population base and play a key regional role.

Further to the identification of Key Towns it is acknowledged that there are a number of settlements, which also have strong service and employment functions and have the capacity to support a level of commensurate population and employment growth. In this regard local authorities shall apply a similar evidence driven asset-based approach to the consideration of all settlements, some of which may have the potential and ambition to become drivers for growth in the county or to play a key role in providing services and employment to their local catchments.

The RSES considered the following using an asset-based approach (see also Table 3.1) in the development of the Settlement Strategy:

Towns in the lower tiers should provide for commensurate population and employment growth, providing for natural increases and to become more economically self-sustaining, in line with the quality and capacity of public transport, services and infrastructure available. It is considered appropriate that population targets for these towns be defined in the core strategies of development plans, and be reflective of local conditions and place potential.

• The scale of population, growth rates and local ambition for sustainable compact growth

• The scale of employment provision and commuting flows

• Particular sub-regional interdependencies and influence, for example whether a settlement is located within the Dublin Metropolitan Area, Core Region or Gateway Region

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Core Strategies

• The extent of local services provision i.e. administration, education- particularly third level, health, retail and amenities

Local authorities, in the preparation of their core strategies should have due regard to the settlement typology of towns in the Region and carefully consider the phasing of development lands to ensure that towns grow at a sustainable level appropriate to their position in the hierarchy. See Tables 4.2 and 4.3 for further guidance.

• Levels of relative affluence or deprivation

• The availability of economic development assets and clusters

• Transport accessibility and trip profiles, including internal trips

• Environmental sensitivities, resources and assets

• Current and planned infrastructure capacity

The RSES identifies a third tier of Key Towns which are Swords, Maynooth, Bray, Navan, Naas, Wicklow-Rathnew, Longford, Mullingar, Tullamore, Portlaoise and Graiguecullen (Carlow). They are large economically active service and/or county towns, with high quality transport links that play an important service role for their catchments and that have the capacity to act as growth drivers to complement Dublin and the Regional Growth Centres.

Table 4.3 Settlement Typologies and Policy Responses

People & Place

Table 4.3 Settlement Typologies and Policy Responses
Settlement Typology	1. Dublin City and suburbs	2. Regional Growth Centres	3. Key Towns	4. Self-Sustaining Growth Towns and Self- Sustaining Towns	5. Towns, Villages and Rural Areas
Significance	International	National	Regional	County	Local
Socio Economic Functions	International business core with strong diversified economic base with access to international markets. High density retail and service hub with high quality arts, culture and leisure offer.	Large regional centres with strong economic base and good connectivity to Dublin and its markets. High level of service and retail functions playing a key role for a wide catchment.	Large economically active service and/or county towns that provide employment for their surrounding areas and with high-quality transport links and the capacity to act as growth drivers.	Self-Sustaining Growth Towns and Self-Sustaining Towns, some of which have experienced rapid population growth and require ‘catch up’ investment to become more self-sustaining.	Towns and villages with local service and employment functions. Rural areas both within and outside the influence of large urban areas.
Transport Profile	Self-sufficient (high internal trip rate) transport hub with high quality public transport and links to other centres.	Self-sufficient settlements with higher rates of internal trips and public transport connections to Dublin and other centres.	Self-sufficient settlements (Gateway Region) and commuter settlements with high quality public transport and growth capacity at transport nodes.	Self-sufficient and commuter settlements, with good public transport and regional transport links, some of which may be highly car dependent.	Towns and rural villages some of which may not have good public transport or regional connections and may be highly car dependent.
Policy Response	Continued consolidated population and employment growth with a focus on improving housing supply and amenity provision to create sustainable communities and improve public transport and sustainable travel options.	Key drivers of regional economic growth aligned with significant rates of population growth, coupled with investment in services, amenities and sustainable transport.	Commensurate population and employment growth, on high quality public transport corridors coupled with investment in services, amenities and sustainable transport.	Consolidation coupled with targeted investment where required to improve local employment, services and sustainable transport options and to become more self-sustaining settlements.	Consolidation coupled with targeted rural housing and investment policies where required to improve local employment, services and sustainable transport options and to become more self-sustaining.

The translation of these policy responses into core strategies in development plans should also consider the scale and location of settlements and accordingly the requisite nature and scale of development appropriate at these locations. In this regard, higher densities in core strategies should be applied to higher order settlements such as Dublin City, Regional Growth Centres and Key Towns. However there should be a graded reduction in residential densities for Self-Sustaining Growth Towns, Self-Sustaining Towns, towns and villages that are commensurate to the existing built environment.

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Regional Spatial & Economic Strategy

Local authorities, in developing their core strategies and settlement hierarchies will consider the following growth enablers for every part of the Region to meet its potential including;
• Economic Growth – Harness opportunities for economic growth by supporting synergies between talent and place, building on identified assets to strengthen enterprise ecosystems and provide quality jobs. Re-intensify employment within existing urban areas, complemented by strategic employment growth in the right locations and diversification of local and rural economies to better withstand economic shocks and sustain national growth.	• Dublin-Belfast Economic Corridor - Safeguard and improve accessibility and service by rail, road and communication between Dublin and Belfast and drive cross border networks between Drogheda, Dundalk and Newry. Post-Brexit, consideration should be given to a process that can establish protocols for environmental protection and movement of people and goods.
	• Healthy Placemaking - To realise sustained economic
• Align Population, Employment and Housing Growth –	growth and employment including the integration
Divergence between the places people live and work leads to long-distance commuting and congestion, which is having a negative impact on quality of life. To address this, promote sustainable growth in the right locations and ‘catch up’ investment and consolidation in local services, amenities and employment in areas that have experienced large scale commuter driven housing development.	of better urban design, public realm, amenities and heritage to create attractive places to live, work, visit and invest in. Focus on placemaking to create attractive and sustainable communities to support active lifestyles including walking and cycling.
	• Climate Action – to accelerate a transition to a
• Compact Sustainable Growth – Promote compact,	greener, low carbon and climate resilient region with focus on energy transition, carbon sequestration
sequential and sustainable development of urban areas from large to small to realise targets of at least 50% of all new homes to be built, to be within or contiguous to the existing built up area of Dublin city and suburbs, and a target of at least 30% for other urban areas. Support co-ordination across local authorities and agencies to promote active land management and better use of under-utilised, brownfield and public lands.	and reduced travel demand through the promotion of sustainable settlement patterns. Support the Climate Action Regional Offices and local authorities in their implementation of climate strategies.
	• Collaboration – The Assembly will foster collaboration
	in the allocation of funds to maximise the value for money and delivery of RSES policy and to promote
• Regeneration and Development – Identify significant	enhanced collaboration between local and regional stakeholders in relation to enterprise and employment,
ready-to-go regeneration projects in the existing built areas of our cities, towns, villages as well as rural regeneration opportunities, which could leverage private and public-sector support and investment, including NPF and European funding with a focus on social as well as physical regeneration.	transport, education, retail and service delivery and in the preparation of local transport plans and urban area plans (UAPs). There will be a need to co-ordinate the sources of funding of infrastructure, including community facilities that will be located within joint urban area plans.
• Strategic Connectivity – Protect and enhance global
connectivity including the TEN-T network to ensure the best use of existing and planned transport infrastructure, safeguard national assets and improve sustainable mobility. Enhance regional accessibility as part of an integrated land use and transport strategy to enable the development of designated towns on strategic and public transport corridors and in tandem with enabling infrastructure.

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Regional Spatial & Economic Strategy

Taking Account of Existing Plans

Proactive land management therefore requires realistic prioritisation, proper monitoring and effective co-ordination across regional, metropolitan, city and county levels.

Where there may not be an ideal fit between some current plans and the more up to date broad national and regional future development parameters set out under the NPF, this Strategy and/or updated data that might be circulated by the Department from time to time as new information (i.e. Census data) becomes available, appropriate transitional arrangements will be put in place.

For current planning purposes, the immediate short term will be regarded as the period to 2021, the shortmedium term may be regarded as the period from 2021 to 2026, the medium term is the period from 2026 to 2031 and the long term is the period post-2031.

For example, the consideration of development land prioritisation measures by local authorities rather than ‘dezoning’ of land, where there may be a surplus, would be more appropriate. The Department of Housing Planning and Local Government (DHPLG) will provide updated planning guidelines on their development plan functions to planning authorities in this regard. The NPF or the NPF Implementation Roadmap document, do not seek the downzoning of land, however.

By the time the current Regional Spatial and Economic Strategies (RSESs) are complete and city and county development plans reviewed, the first round of post-RSES development period 2021- 2026 will have become the short term.

Headroom

Practice in relation to previous Regional Planning Guidelines (RPGs) and core strategies, has generally been to match future population targets to the physical extent of land being zoned for development, based on assumptions related to density and household occupancy. A further factor of 50% of the identified land requirement has also been universally applied as ‘headroom’.

Core strategies may apply prioritisation measures and/ or de-zoning of land where a surplus of land is identified in plans with regard to the NPF Implementation Roadmap up to 2031. In preparing core strategies account should also be given to the consideration of sequential lands which are suitable for the delivery of housing but may not be forthcoming in the plan period having regard to 2031 roadmap targets, subject to proper planning and sustainable development.

The concept of headroom based solely on zoned land provision does not account for housing yield arising from the re-use of existing housing stock, mixed-use development, urban intensification or infill or brownfield development.

Furthermore, the zoning of land and planning permission alone, do not necessarily guarantee delivery and population growth in accordance with projected, targeted timeframes.

NPF Roadmap population projections already incorporate 25% headroom figures for all parts of the country (Implementation Roadmap for the National Planning Framework, Appendix 2). This may be supplemented by additional 25% headroom, applicable in the 16 local authority areas that are projected to grow at or above the national average growth figure (page 5 of the NPF Roadmap). This further headroom may be applied regionally and locally, at RSES and city and county development plan stage.

Therefore, in planning for future growth, it will be important for planning authorities to set out and monitor the service capacity and likely rate of completion of development on zoned lands, both brownfield and greenfield as well as elsewhere, having regard to local conditions and trends.

Much closer attention will need to be paid to actual delivery, taking the steps that may be necessary to implement strategic planning aims, housing delivery in the immediate term and above all, avoiding the hoarding of land and/or planning permissions.

Application of headroom is particularly relevant to urban areas, particularly the five cities, where the aim is to target at least half of future housing delivery within existing built-up areas.

Effective ways to tackle any tendencies towards land and/ or planning permission hoarding or excessively slow delivery include measures such as the Vacant Site Levy and the release of alternate lands where permitted development, without any wider delivery constraints, is not being brought forward.

However, the scale of projected population targets for cities means some transfer of projected growth to their wider metropolitan areas is appropriate, particularly during the transition period to 2026, this level of transfer may be determined at the regional or metropolitan level.

Accordingly, sites with long-term development potential at priority locations should not be ‘reserved’ at the land allocation stages of the plan-making and implementation processes, in such a way as would create an unreasonable dependency on such sites being brought forward or that would impede the bringing forward of other suitable lands with better prospects for delivery in the short term, if the strategic sites are not being brought forward by their owners.

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Measuring Delivery through Active Land Management

REGIONAL POLICY OBJECTIVES:

The population projections targeted in the NPF Roadmap are the current benchmark against which delivery may be measured. Planning authorities at regional and city/ county level are expected to set out both the distribution and prioritisation of planning measures, including land zoning, required to deliver population growth.

Settlement Strategy

RPO 4.1: In preparing core strategies for development plans, local authorities shall determine the hierarchy of settlements in accordance with the hierarchy, guiding principles and typology of settlements in the RSES, within the population projections set out in the National Planning Framework to ensure that towns grow at a sustainable and appropriate level, by setting out a rationale for land proposed to be zoned for residential, employment and mixed-use development across the Region. Core strategies shall also be developed having regard to the infill/brownfield targets set out in the National Planning Framework, National Policy Objectives 3a-3c.

It is expected that distribution will be at the scale of the regional or local authority area, having regard to the NPF and RSES, and priority will be related to timescales, initially to 2021 and then to 2026, 2031 or beyond.

Performance may be measured by the extent to which growth is delivered in accordance with targets and identified priorities. Good performance will enable optimal delivery of services and infrastructure to support development and critically, will also inform future review. It is likely that achieving good performance will require a range of more active land management measures, beyond just zoning land.

RPO 4.2: Infrastructure investment and priorities shall be aligned with the spatial planning strategy of the RSES. All residential and employment developments should be planned on a phased basis in collaboration with infrastructure providers so as to ensure adequate capacity for services (e.g. water supply, wastewater, transport, broadband) is available to match projected demand for services and that the assimilative capacity of the receiving environment is not exceeded.

This will include analysis of service capacity, needs and overall cost, infill/brownfield potential and patterns of housing delivery and output, including the takeup and completion of planning permissions. It will be necessary for planning authorities, in both their forward planning and development management functions, to act to encourage greater competition in the delivery of output, particularly at priority locations.

All of this will require a suitable ‘pipeline’ of development opportunities, prioritised on the basis of likelihood of meeting targets and kept under review through monitoring and reporting.

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Regional Spatial & Economic Strategy