I am very concerned about Section 3.14 in the Draft plan which says that houses will be limited to 15 houses per kilometre squared generally, and a maximum of 25 per km.sq. where the area is very enclosed or well screened. While the section does say this is “a guideline” and won’t be applied rigidly, I am sure that in fact the planning officials will make this a definite rule.
My family live in a rural area c.5km from Naas where my husband grew up. This is a long established traditional community – my husband remembers the water pump at the cross roads when he was growing up, and there are quite a few “council cottages” built back in the 1940’s/1950’s. Our family goes back 5 generations in this area, some of our neighbours are here since the 1800’s, and majority of families are here at least 30 years.
But the new limit proposed on the number of houses will apply to our traditional area, just the same as it will apply to areas with numbers of large mansions built by speculators during the Celtic Tiger period. I don’t think this is fair.
Apart from checking out how the new limits would apply in our own area, we have also looked at the map at areas where friends and relations live near Kildare town/Monasterevin; that’s a very rural area, and like our own area, it’s a very long established community, but the number of houses there exceeds the 15 per km, so it looks like new houses will be barred there too.
I believe that if any new rules are going to be applied they should take account of long standing established communities. One way of doing this would be if a concession was made, e.g. –
“In counting the number of houses in a 1 km squared area houses built before 1972 (50 years ago) will not be counted”
This change would allow established communities to have some new houses so that the younger generation can live near their family on sites on family land.