Planning levies for Luas parking to be cut

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...292611384.html

Planning levies for Luas parking to be cut
FIONA GARTLAND

PLANNING LEVIES for landowners and developers who want to build park-and-ride facilities along the route of the Cherrywood Luas line in Dublin are to be cut in half in a bid to provide facilities for commuters.

Councillors in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council voted to cut the “Section 48” levies earlier this week.

As a result, one will have a levy he was due to pay the council dropped from almost €139,000 to just over €69,000.

Fianna Fáil councillor Tom Murphy already has planning permission for a car park with 78 spaces on his lands at Murphystown Road, close to the Luas line. It was granted on a temporary basis for five years last October.

Two other park-and-ride facilities have also been given permission by the council at Carrickmines and Ballyogan Road.

These will provide more than 700 spaces between them and are being developed by the Railway Procurement Agency and Dublin company Viscount Securities respectively.

A fourth application for park-and-ride facilities has yet to be decided by the council. Dunloe Management Services wants to provide 197 spaces at Cherrywood Science and Technology Park, near the Luas terminus.

The planning levy was introduced in 2009 to raise funds for the development of the extension line. Other developments, including business expansion and domestic extensions, will not be affected by the cut.

Since the Cherrywood line opened last October, commuters have been struggling to find parking along its route.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown county manager Owen Keegan had recommended the levy be abolished to encourage the provision of parking facilities.

He said the levy was “penal” and he had spoken to a number of developers on the matter. In at least one case, the cost of the levy was significantly higher than the cost of building the car park.

He told councillors the cut would apply to existing planning permissions. But councillors instead voted for what amounted to a halving of the levy.

A council source said while Mr Murphy was not present in the chamber when the vote was taken, he did not declare to the chamber that he had an interest in the decision. Despite numerous efforts, Mr Murphy was not contactable yesterday for comment.

Fine Gael deputy Olivia Mitchell welcomed the reduction in the levy for car parks, but said the scheme should be overhauled.

“Levies amounting to thousands of euro on new businesses are simply no longer realistic.

“No local authority can afford to risk losing jobs by making itself so expensive that businesses can neither set up nor expand their enterprises,” she said.

[dowlingm]

P&R is all very well but slathering tarmac around only goes so far. Decent feeder service might help tip the balance for families considering going from 2 cars to 1 etc.

[Colm Moore]

http://dublinobserver.com/2011/03/lu...-consultation/

Luas parking levy changes “legally questionable” without consultation
Posted by Cian Ginty Cherrywood, Dun Laoghaire, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Featured Updates, News, Sandyford Monday, March 21st, 2011

A councillor says the move to reduce development levies for car parks is “legally questionable” without public consultation.

Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council is to reduce development levies on temporary ‘park and ride’ car parks along the Luas line B1 extension to Cherrywood by 75%.

Councillors voted for the change at the council’s monthly meeting last Monday.

“I have considerable sympathy for any measure that would encourage park and ride facilities for the Luas line. But any major change to the development levy schemes is required to undergo proper consultation,” said Cllr Richard Humphreys.

“The decision of the FG and FF councillors to ram through this change without any such consultation is, in my view, legally questionable,” Humphreys said. He said that the results of consultation could have gone further than councillors have and shown that people wanted the levies removed fully.

Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown county manager, Owen Keegan, told councillors last week that it was an “urgent issue,” that current levies are “penal,” and he said he was quite confidence that the changes are within the capacities of councillors.

He said the park and ride developments planned are temporary – for around five years — and the council would have to be satisfied that the parking charges and operation hours are reasonable. He said the Railway Procurement Agency is happy to rebate the Luas levy in full for the car parks.

Kathleen Holohan, director of planning for the council, said by her estimates car park owners would not make enough money to be able to pay back the original levies from the money earned from parking for five years.

Keegan said: “We are aware of a number of proposals, some of which already have planning permission and one or two in the process of getting permission. But it’s unlikely that any of these would proceed given the current levy.”

A number of councillors raised issues with unfairness of exempting levies for some while others have paid them or have to pay them before developing sites. It was agreed that the levied be reduced by 75% rather than removed fully. The vote was carried with 15 councillors for it and nine against.

Cllr Hugh Lewis (PBP / ULA) said, “The Luas system should have never been built without park and ride facilities in the first place. It’s systemic of bad planning.”

Cllr Tom Joyce (FG) said while councillors have said they are in favour of park and ride that some had voted against it already.

Cllr Victor Boyhan (Independent) said he knows of people who have had problems building extensions to their houses or building houses because their land is within the levy area.

Planning permission has been granted for the following car parks along the line:
* 350 spaces at Carrickmines to the Railway Procurement Agency for 6 years (details)
* 387 spaces beside Leopardstown Valley Luas stop to Viscount Securities for 5 years (details)
* 78 spaces at Murphystown Road, Sandyford, to Fianna Fail councillor Thomas Murphy (details)

Still in the planning process:
* 197 spaces at Cherrywood Science and Technology Park, Cherrywood, Loughlinstown, awaiting further information from Dunloe Management Services (details)

[ACustomer]

In a rational world, there would be levies on residential and office developments which create a demand for new infrastructure. Park and ride faclities, are part of the supply of transport infrasctucture so having levies on these is plain crazy: they should if anything be recipients of subsidies financed through development levies.

Yet another example of the extraordinary incompetence of public administration in Ireland.

[Colm Moore]

Ehhhhhh, double edged sword. Ideally there would be dense development next to stops, served by feeder services. Ideally, in the absence of development along the southern half of the lines, its is the RPA that should have provided P&R - then it would capable of of being funded by the levies from eventual development.