More houses for Tipperary after almost 400 acres of land rezoned in council vote
Almost 400 acres of additional land in Tipperary is now zoned for housing after councillors voted to adopt changes to the county development plan.
At the September plenary meeting of Tipperary County Council, councillors were again asked to vote on the changes to the development plan after failing to agree back in June.
The changes mean that 161 hectares (397 acres) of land were rezoned for housing development immediately after the vote was taken.
Tipperary County Council has been working on a variation to its county development plan which would see additional sites in towns across the county zoned for housing in an attempt to alleviate the housing crisis.
The plans went out for public consultation earlier this year, with landowners invited to nominate sites for housing.
At the September meeting, executive planner Fergal O’Donnell told councillors that they could now vote on whether to adopt the changes or not.
Fine Gael councillor John Crosse was among the councillors to welcome the changes, saying that there is a massive need for housing right across the county.
“There’s a need for housing and this is an opportunity now for landowners and developers and there’s an opportunity for more houses to be built,” he said.
Independent Thurles councillor Jim Ryan said he was glad to see the work carried out during various meetings come to fruition.
“We all attended workshops and a lot of good work was done, and I’m delighted to see that lands in Thurles that were changed by the national planning authority, are going back to residential,” he said.
“I want to show my appreciation to Fergal and everybody on his team and in planning for listening to the concerns of councillors in the Thurles area,” he added.
The vote followed a failure by councillors to agree on the proposed variation in June, when concerns were raised about a number of individual sites.
Ballina councillor Phyll Bugler said that she didn’t feel like she had enough time to raise issues during the process.
Thurles-based councillor Jim Ryan said he felt an opportunity had been missed for the village of Littleton, while Nenagh councillor Seamie Morris said that there was land included in Nenagh that shouldn’t have been considered for housing.
Now that the plans have passed council stage, the lands included have immediately been rezoned.