County Development Plan 2022-2028

In simple terms, a Development Plan is a spatial plan that guides the future development of a County for a six-year period through a suite of policy objectives, land use zoning objectives and development management guidance.

A Development Plan must ensure that there is enough land zoned in the County to meet our housing requirements which are set at a regional level. Chapter 1 of the Plan sets out more detail in relation to the legislative context and structure of the Development Plan.

A short video was prepared at the Draft Plan stage which provides an overview of what a Development Plan is and the vision for the County for the period 2022-2028 (note: the Draft Plan consultation ended in April 2021 - submissions can no longer be accepted). 

Section 10 of the Planning and Development Act, 2000 (as amended) sets out the statutory content of a Development Plan – these requirements are summarised in Appendix A of the pre-draft ‘Have Your Say’ document.

The County Development Plan 2022-2028 was made / adopted, with amendments, by the elected members during Special County Development Plan meetings on the 9th and 10th March 2022.

Section (12) (17) of the Planning and Development Act, 2000 (as amended), states:

"A development plan made under this section shall have effect 6 weeks from the day that it is made."

The new plan came into force on the 21st April 2022.

The Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Development Plan 2022-2028 is available to view above. Hardcopies are available to view at Planning Department, County Hall, Marine Road, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin Mon-Fri (excluding Bank Holidays) between 10.00a.m. and 4.00p.m. and at the Council Offices, Dundrum Office Park Main Street, Dundrum, Dublin 14 Mon-Fri (excluding Bank Holidays) from 9.30a.m. to 12.30p.m. and 1.30p.m. to 4.30p.m.

Hardcopies of the Plan will not be available to purchase until the process relating to the Draft Ministerial Direction is complete.

Proposed development (planning applications) will be assessed upon the provisions of the development plan in force at the time of making a decision in accordance with Section 34(2)(a) of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended), which states:

“(2) (a) When making its decision in relation to an application under this section,
the planning authority shall be restricted to considering the proper planning
and sustainable development of the area, regard being had to—
(i)   the provisions of the development plan, …”

The Plan came into force on 21st April 2022 therefore all decisions are now being assessed having regard to the policy objectives of the new plan.

As set out in Section 31 of the Planning and Development Act, 2000 (as amended), a Minister for Local Government and Planning may issue a ‘direction’ to amend a plan where they are of the opinion that a County Development Plan:

• Has failed to implement the recommendations of, or take account of a submission made by, the Minister or the Office of the Planning Regulator;
• Has failed to set out an overall strategy for the proper planning and sustainable development of the area;
• Is not consistent with – the National Planning Framework, the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy or a specific planning policy requirement specified set out in the Section 28 Guidelines;
• Is not in compliance with the requirements of the Act;
• Is not consistent with the transport strategy of the National Transport Authority (within the Greater Dublin Area).

As per Section 31AM(6) of the Planning and Development Act, 2000 (as amended), the Planning Authority notified the Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) of the making of the Plan within 5 working days of its adoption.

The OPR was of the opinion that the development plan was not made in a manner consistent with the recommendations of the office and failed to set out an overall strategy for the proper planning and sustainable development of the area concerned. The OPR therefore issued a notice with recommendations to the Minister for Local Government and Planning.

The Minister exercised his function to rectify the matter by issuing a Draft Direction in accordance with Section 31(7) of the Planning and Development Act, 2000 (as amended), to the Planning Authority with regard the making of the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Development Plan 2022-2028.

In accordance with Section 31 of the Planning and Development Act, 2000 (as amended), the Minister issued the Planning and Development (Dún LaoghaireRathdown County Development Plan 2022-2028) Direction 2022 to the Planning Authority on 28th September 2022. 

In accordance with the Planning and Development (Dún LaoghaireRathdown County Development Plan 2022-2028) Direction 2022, the following sections of the County Development Plan 2022-2028 did not come into force on 21st April 2022 and will be deleted from the Adopted Plan:

• The 0/0 objective including the symbol, boundary of objective area* as set out on Land Use Zoning Maps 3, 4, 7 and 10.

• The text “No increase in the number of buildings permissible” in the legend of Land Use Zoning Maps 1-14.

• The policy section on ‘Notable Character Area Exclusions’ under section 4.3.1.1 of Chapter 4 (pg. 84) of the Written Statement.
  Section 12.3.7.8 ‘0/0 Zone’ of Chapter 12 (pg. 246-248) of the Written Statement.

• The second paragraph of Section 12.3.3 ‘Quantitative Standards for All Residential Development’ of Chapter 12 (pg. 236) of the Written Statement, which states: “That the requirement for certain percentages of 3-bed units in apartments shall apply to Build To Rent developments to accord with mix on page 237.”

*An objective area boundary will be retained on Land Use Zoning Maps 3, 4, 7 and 10 for Specific Local Objective (SLO)130.

Only those sections listed above are affected by the Direction, the remainder of the County Development Plan 2022-2028 came into force on 21st April 2022.

The Planning Auhtority are now making the necessary changes to the Adopted Plan documents and maps which will be published online and made available to view and/or purchase thereafter.

Yes – all Development Plan documents are provided on our webpage as downloadable PDFs.

Each Volume of the Chief Executive’s Report is provided on our webpage as a downloadable PDF.

Note: The Ministerial Direction effects certain parts of the adopted Plan that is currently available to download. The Planning Authority are updating all relevant sections which will be available to download in due course. 

The Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Development Plan 2022-2028 is available to view above. Hardcopies are available to view at Planning Department, County Hall, Marine Road, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin Mon-Fri (excluding Bank Holidays) between 10.00a.m. and 4.00p.m. and at the Council Offices, Dundrum Office Park Main Street, Dundrum, Dublin 14 Mon-Fri (excluding Bank Holidays) from 9.30a.m. to 12.30p.m. and 1.30p.m. to 4.30p.m.

Hardcopies of the Plan will not be available to purchase until after the process of updating plan documents and maps, to incorpoarte the requirements of the Ministerial Direction, is complete.

A Development Plan sets out the land use zoning objectives for an area.

The land use zoning objectives for the County are set out over a series of 14 maps and an interactive webmap.

Certain uses which may be permitted in principle or open for consideration within each land use zone is set out Chapter 13 of the Development Plan.

Proposed development within an area occurs when a developer (public or private), or an individual, proposes and obtains the relevant planning permission. This ‘development management’ process is separate to the Development Plan making process. Proposed development is required to accord with the provisions of a Development Plan.

Yes – our interactive map has an address search function.  To zoom into your desired location, simply enter your address or Eircode, in the ‘find’ bar located at top left of the map.

If you want to download the map relevant to your area, the easiest way to find the correct map is to visit the map area in our virtual room where a map index shows all map numbers and the areas they cover.

The interactive map may not function properly for a number of reasons, often a simple refresh of the page will reload it without issue. Some other suggestions that may remedy your issue include:
• The interactive map works best and should be opened on one of the following web browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Edge.
• Please ensure that you have accepted the terms and conditions by ticking the box upon opening the map.
• Some layers will not load until you zoom into an area.
• The mapping service provider esri may be carrying out essential updates – this is usually a very limited time only and the map may load successfully again in 10-15 minutes time.

Land use mapping for the entire county is available to download as separate PDF documents from our webpage.
In the event that you continue to have difficulty accessing the interactive map, please contact us planning@dlrcoco.ie with details of the issue.

All plan documents and Chief Executive's Reports associared with each stage involved in the preparation of the County Development Plan 2022-2028 is set out above.

The Draft Plan can also still be viewed within the virtual room that was prepared for its consulation phase.

During the Special Development Plan Council meetings on 12th, 13th, 14th,18th 19th, 20th and 21st of October 2021, the Elected Members, by way of resolution, agreed to amend the Draft Development Plan.
The proposed amendments, or material alterations, resulted from:
• A recommendation in the Chief Executive’s Report on Draft Plan Consultation,
• A motion proposed by an Elected Member, and/or
• A combination of the above.

All owners and occupiers of properties or structures added to or deleted from the Record of Protected Structures (RPS) in the adopted Plan are legally required to be notified as per Section 12(13) of the Planning and Development Act (as amended).

The requirements of Section 12(13) of the Act may result in you receiving two letters if the owner is also occupier the structure added or deleted from the RPS.

The Record of Protected Structures is set out in Appendix 4 of the Development Plan and are shown in a dark yellow colour on land use zoning maps. 

If you have received a letter in relation to the addition of property / structure to the Record of Protected Structures in error, please advise the Planning Department as soon as possible using the contact details at the top of the letter.

Your property / structure was been recommended for inclusion onto the Record of Protected Structures “in order to protect a structure, or part of a structure, of special architectural, historical, archaeological, artistic, cultural, scientific, social or technical interest” (Section 54 of the Planning and Development Act, 2000, as amended).

A notice was issued to owners/occupiers of properties/structures recommended to be added to the RPS at Draft Plan stage. The notice issued states whether the recommendation was made by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage or by the Planning Authority.

Properties / structures recommended for addition by the Minister resulted from surveys carried out for part of the County. More specific details for a particular structure can be found in the surveys of the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage: here.

Properties / structures recommended for addition by the Planning Authority were as a result of either - submissions received at pre-draft stage (see pre-draft CE Report for details), Motions from Elected Members (see Special Meetings from December 15-18th 2020), the property / structure was brought to our attention during the preparation of the current County Development Plan 2016-2022 or when dealing with planning applications since the adoption of the current Plan.

Further details with regard to Protected Structures can be found here on the Conservation section of our website.

The surveys carried out by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage for part of the County were not fully completed prior to the adoption of the current County Development Plan 2016-2022.

An Architectural Conservation Area (ACA) is a place, area, group of structures or townscape that is of special architectural, historical, archaeological, technical, social, cultural, or scientific, interest, or that contributes to the appreciation of a Protected Structure. An ACA aims to identify and protect areas of special significance and promote an awareness of this significance.

All ACA's are listed in Appendix 4 of the Development Plan with links to each of their Character Appraisal documents.

Further details with regard to ACA’s in general can be found here on the Conservation section of our website.

Flood Zone Maps are maps of areas predicted to be at risk of flooding in the 1.0% annual exceedance probability (AEP) event (1 in 100 year - Flood Zone A) and the 0.1% AEP event (1 in 1000 year - Flood Zone B).
The Flood Zone Maps were produced as an output of the Eastern Catchment Flood Risk Assessment & Management (ECFRAMs) project (2010 -2017) and were subject to statutory consultation and approval during that period.

For specific flood risk considerations of an area, please Appendix 15 Strategic Flood Risk Assessment of the Development Plan.

In the event that your query has not been covered here, please contact E: planning@dlrcoco.ie / T: 01 2054700.

The list of FAQs do not purport to be a legal interpretation of the Planning and Development Act 2000, (as amedned) and are simply for information purposes.