Paul mcternan greenexpo

www.cbuchanan.comColin Buchanan

Smart City Planning - Illusion or reality in Ireland ?Paul McTernan, MIPI MRTPI, Director

Smart City Planning

Smart Growth

The solution is simple,but difficult to achieve

Wikipedia

Smart growth is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in the center of a city to avoid urban sprawl; and advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including neighborhood schools, complete streets, and mixed-use development with a range of housing choices.

The genesis of smart…

Traffic in Towns 1964

Buchanan Report 1968

Compact V Dispersal

The attributes of smart growth..

Compact mixed use neighbourhoods

Transit orientated development

Pedestrian and cycle friendly environments

Preserved open space and habitats

Historic preservation

Fresh air and clean water

Socioeconomic integration

Safe and secure

Efficiently enabled by public services

Our recent track record:

Massive urban/rural change.

Frenzied development sector

Take a picture and knock it down mentality

Winners and losers

Widening equality gap

Fuelling the march of the consumer

Little if any citizen participation

Impacts

Lost villages of the Pale…

Clearance of historic city centres

Limited protection for historic structures

Pollution of Waterways

Rural Landscape degradation

The Hill of Tara…going, going, gone…

Dormitory towns and soulless estates

Stifling congestion and long commutes

Major community facility deficits

A once rampant development sector championed at all levels..

Stupid or smart ?

Is it in our culture to be smart….or stupid ?

Are we too small, too rural to be smart ?

The NSS….Stupid or smart ?

Light Pollution

Night time electric light emissions, Ireland 2000 (European Space Agency)

New residential addresses Food production

Cumulative Effects……

Infrastructure deficit.

“by contrast, Ireland fell the farthest – and the hardest. It leaves the ranking of top European performers, falling nine places in the European Growth and Jobs Monitor to No. 13, just ahead of Italy, the perennial laggard”.

Allianz European Jobs and Growth Indicator 2009

“it is of critical importance that the island continues to invest, on average, over 5% of its combined GDP annually over the next 20 years”

Irish Academy of Engineering & Engineers Ireland study ‘Infrastructure for an island of 8 million’

Wikipedia

Smart growth values long-range, regional considerations of sustainability over a short-term focus. Its goals are to achieve a unique sense of community and place; expand the range of transportation, employment, and housing choices; equitably distribute the costs and benefits of development; preserve and enhance natural and cultural resources; and promote public health.

Are we smart at regional level ?

GNP to continue to fall in 2010‘..no clear trends visible yet in relation to economic recovery rates’

Unemployment to reach 15%‘for areas that have traditionally suffered from deprivation these figures will be much higher at local level’

Sectoral Convergence and Clustering Effects- We live in hope?

RPG Population and Housing

Housing Commencements down 75% in GDA :

4,850, Q1-Q2 20081,039, Q1-Q2 2009

Still in denial?

DCC Area Targets –

Completions target of 9K units P.A. average 2016-2022.

Actual completion of 7.2K units P.A. average 2005-2007.

Is there room for more direction, more targeted phasing?

‘policy needs to look beyond the physical building and at the investments needed to build good communities’

Transport Infrastructure

‘Future population growth linked to large scale public transport investment is critical’

Commitment to housing and mixed use development to happen only in tandem with high quality light or heavy rail, within the context of integrated Local Area Plans or Strategic Development Zones.

•DART Underground•Metro North•LUAS network extension•Metro West

Dublin City Draft Plan Core Strategy

DCC DRAFT PLAN CORE STRATEGY

DCC Draft Plan Strands- Vision versus Reality

Smart Vision

Compact, Quality, Green, Clean, Connected City

Real Economic Recovery, Creative Networks, Smart Innovative City

Creating Sustainable Neighbourhoods, Communities

Reality?

Transport dysfunction, sprawl

Stalled development and regeneration agenda - NAMA

Uncertainty that city core can/will drive future economic growth

Is polycentric development deliverable? indeed advisable?

Economic Corridors

Core Strategy

A reactive posture offering weak direction

Land use policies

Evidence based application criteria. Applicant must justify project.

Threat to employment lands due to lack of evidence base?

High rise and development density agenda to be ‘application’ not ‘plan’ driven.

Adversarial application process to continue. Mixed use ‘for the sake of it’ at certain

locations

Unclear whether this approach can deliver the Core Strategy

10 ideas……..

10 ideas

to move us from stupid to smart

Smart move 1

1. Champion our cities:

Revise and focus the NSS around 5 key cities and streamline their governance.

.

Smart move 2

2. Create an urban finance measure to springboard our failing cities and fund new modal shift strategies.

Smart move 3

3. Refresh our understanding of what town centre means in terms of vibrancy and mixed use living

Smart move 4

4. Adopt a genuinely strategic approach to employment land nationally…abandon the current political approach

Smart move 5

5. Align Regional Planning Guidelines (and statutory development plans areas) to river basin catchment areas

Smart move 6

6. Consider the promotion of a contemporary Irish Garden City movement…

Medium density communities, gardens, allotments, integrated water and waste systems, mixed use, broadband, energy independent neighbourhoods.

Smart move 7

7.Designate horticultural belts instead of greenbelts around our key cities

Smart move 8

8. Empower communities:Allow citizens and communities to refer new development plans to An Bord Pleanála for scrutiny.

Smart move 9

9. Ditch Part 5 and nurture rental security

Smart move 10

10. Create a community planning model for key towns and suburbs to spearhead regeneration.

Integrate service provision (health and education) with regeneration strategies and new infrastructure to promote more structured governance and delivery.

Ten smart moves………

1. Champion our cities : Revise and focus the NSS around 5 key cities and streamline their governance.

2. Create an urban finance measure to springboard failing gateway cities and fund new modal shift strategies

3. Refresh our understanding of what town centre means in terms of vibrancy and mixed use living

4. Adopt a genuinely strategic approach to employment land nationally…abandon the current political approach

5. Align statutory development plan areas to river basin catchment areas

6. Consider the promotion of an Irish Garden City movement…medium density communities, gardens, allotments, integrated water and waste systems, energy independent neighbourhoods

7. Designate horticultural belts instead of greenbelts around our key cities

8. Allow citizens and communities to refer new development plans to An Bord Pleanála for scrutiny.

9. Ditch Part 5 and nurture rental security 10.Create a community planning model for better service integration

and more structured governance and delivery

www.cbuchanan.comColin Buchanan

Thank youPaul McTernan, IPI MRTPI, Director

Email. [email protected]