Comment
Fermanagh & Omagh District Council: Local Development Plan
Below is a summary of the Preferred Options Paper that has been published for consultation.
Northern Ireland Local Development Plan Monitoring
Key goals:
- To provide for 5,190 new homes by 2030 in a range of housing and locations.
- To facilitate the creation of 4,875 new jobs by 2030 at a variety of locations.
Retail:
- Enniskillen and Omagh town centre boundaries could be reviewed.
- Primary retail core proposed for Omagh.
- Vacant school sites within Omagh town centre could provide development opportunities.
- 1,000 sq m threshold proposed for retail impact assessments for development outside town centres.
Infrastructure:
- Potential to allocate sites for tall telecommunication masts.
- Stricter policy approach to wind energy is proposed. New wind energy proposals will not be acceptable in sensitive locations (eg. AONB).
- Non-wind forms of renewable energy will be promoted.
- Potential to zone land for schools and community facilities.
Housing:
- Major focus for development will be in Enniskillen and Omagh.
- A number of settlements are to be reclassified within the settlement hierarchy.
- Potential to zone additional sites for housing within the two main towns.
Economy:
- Existing employment land zonings to be reassessed.
- New employment zonings will be driven by demand and opportunities resulting from proposed infrastructure.
- New and extended areas of mineral constraint proposed to restrict mineral development.
- Boost to tourism sector through the identification of potential tourism growth areas.
Environment:
- Further constraints in areas experiencing high levels of development pressure resulting from wind turbines and single dwellings will be put forward.
- All local landscape designations to be reviewed and potentially extended.
- New local landscape and heritage designations will be proposed.
- Requirement for integrated renewable technology on sites of 1ha or more or 1,000 sq m or more is proposed.
Next steps:
The council have now published their Preferred Options Paper for a consultation period of eight weeks from 3 October to 28 November 2016.
During this time the council will be seeking comments on the proposed policies and will be holding a number of workshops across the district.
Below is a summary of the timetable for the key stages in the preparation of the LDP. Details of the workshops can be found here.
- Preferred Options Paper: 3 October 2016
- Draft Plan Strategy: April - June 2017
- Independent Examination: January - March 2018
- Adopt Plan Strategy: April - June 2018
- Draft Local Policies Plan: January - March 2019
- Independent Examination: January - March 2020
- Adopt Local Policies Plan: April - June 2020
If you would like a chat about what this could mean for you please contact Angela Wiggam or Emma Walker.
3 October 2016