The Government has approved a bill that will replace the Strategic Housing Development (SHD) process with a new system that will restore powers to local authorities.

Under SHD, applications for developments of at least 100 residential units, or 200-plus student bed-spaces, can be made directly to An Bord Pleanála (ABP).

A significant number of ABP decisions made under the system have been challenged in the courts, however.

‘Transparency and clarity’

Darragh O’Brien (Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage) said that the Planning and Development (Amendment) (Large-scale Residential Development) Bill 2021 would still aim to speed up the delivery of housing supply, and would retain some “positive elements” of the SHD arrangements.

The Department of Housing said that restoring decision-making powers on large developments to local authorities would provide “greater transparency and clarity, and improved public participation in the process”.

Under the bill, a large-scale residential development (LRD) is:

• A housing development of 100 or more units,
• Student accommodation comprising 200 beds or more,
• A combination of the two, where the threshold is met for either element.

Timeframes

There will be a pre-application stage, under which an applicant will seek standard pre-application consultation, as currently mandated for developments of this scale under section 247 of the Planning Act 2000.

A mandatory eight-week consultation phase with the local authority will follow, resulting in the holding of an ‘LRD meeting’, and the issuing of an ‘LRD opinion’ on whether the proposals constitute a reasonable basis for submitting a planning application.

The application stage of the process involves a standard application to the planning authority, with a mandatory eight-week decision timeframe.

The decision of the planning authority can be appealed to ABP, in which case the board has a mandatory 16-week timeframe to decide.

Transition period

The bill also includes transitional arrangements for the expiry of the SHD arrangements and their replacement by the new LRD system.

After the bill is enacted, both schemes will run concurrently for a limited period, with developers already in the SHD system being able to continue to decision-making stage.

Once the final SHD planning applications have worked their way through the system, the LRD arrangements will be the only system for housing applications of this scale.

“The mandatory timelines for the three stages of the LRD planning process will streamline the overall decision-making process, thereby providing greater clarity to developers regarding timelines, and the public regarding future housing opportunities,” minister O’Brien said.