City Development Plan amended to allow more parking

THE Cork City Development Plan has been amended to allow for more parking in places in the city — a move which has been welcomed by some as a necessary “compromise”, while others contend that it sends out the “wrong signals”.

At a meeting of the council on Monday, councillors agreed to a proposed variation of the Cork City Development Plan 2022-2028, which will see revised parking standards on a city-wide basis.

Speaking at the meeting on what the variation would mean, senior planner at Cork City Council, Kevin O’Connor, said it “changes the car parking — the maximum levels of car parking allowed for types of uses”.

Mr O’Connor stated the changes to the zones “reflects access to current and planned transport infrastructure”.

“This is a methodology that we worked on with our partners in the NTA [National Transport Authority] and TII [Transport Infrastructure Ireland] to look at an actual workable solution in terms of car parking.

“In areas that have better access or better future access to public transport, you have a lower maximum provision.”

The process to change the parking standards commenced last year with proposals going to public consultation in November. “We got 43 submissions, some for and some against,” Mr O’Connor said.

The Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) asked council to engage with the NTA and TII, which Mr O’Connor said it did, and amendments were made. These were put to the public in February and 15 submissions were received, including from the OPR and TII, both of which support the plan, and the NTA, which Mr O’Connor said “mostly support” it.

At the meeting, Green Party councillor Dan Boyle said he believed the changes would send out the “wrong signals”.

“If we believe in what the core principles behind the City Development Plan were, if we believe in the concept of the 15-minute city, the idea of increasing car parking capacity from what we intended it to be when we passed the plan is going to send out — we believe in the Green Party — the wrong signals,” he said.

Solidarity councillor Fiona Ryan, who attended her last council meeting following her decision to resign, was also among the councillors to speak against the variation. Fianna Fáil councillor Seán Martin said a lot of work had been done on the proposed changes and that the variation put before councillors represented a fair “compromise”, while Fine Gael councillor Joe Kavanagh said spaces for cars are “very important” for the “simple reason cars are not going away”.

Councillors voted to support the proposed variation with 16 for and nine against.