When it comes to zoning land for building, 'the relationship between specialist advisers and councils is always a bit tricky' says one academic. Photograph: iStock
The Galway city councillors who voted to open up a parcel of land for housing in December 2022 knew they were also opening a can of legal worms but they went ahead anyway.
By majority vote, they changed the zoning on the 1.4 hectare site off the Headford Road on the city’s outskirts from recreation to residential.
It made sense, they argued. The area was already mainly residential, there was housing either side of the site and there was a pressing need for new homes in the city.
Long after the existing homes were built, however, the area was identified in a national flood mapping project, the Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management (CFRAM) programme, as being at significant risk from the nearby Terryland river.
Under the national planning guidelines and the Planning Act that makes them binding, “inappropriate development” in areas at risk of flooding must be avoided.
Housing is inappropriate in all but the lowest risk areas and, even then, caution should apply.
The councillors had been advised of this months before by the Office of the Planning Regulator, which reviews draft city, county and local area development plans before they proceed to a f
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