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Urban
15-Minute Cities, Irish Planning Bureaucracy, and Dutch Urban Design By Ted Halligan, JS Law and Political Science With more of us than ever living in cities and urban areas, urban design plays an increasingly important part in tackling climate change. Suburbanisation and urban sprawl have had a terrible consequence for the climate, namely through fostering a culture of car dependency. One of the best ways urban designers can combat this car dependency is by creating what many are calling a “15-minute city,” this being the idea that everyone in a city should have access to all essential services they require within a 15-minute walk or cycle of their home. This is impossible in many places in Ireland due to how many local authorities regulate land use. Most land development in Ireland will require planning permission; it is an offence to develop land without the Local Council’s permission. One of the reasons Councils can object to land being developed in a particular way is if it goes against the county development plan’s zoning objectives. The Council, in deciding its County Development Plan, will decide how it wants the County’s land to be used. The primary reason for this is to prevent land use in ways that are thought to be incompatible (i.e., building a shop or factory next door to a residential house). The map below is the county development plan drawn up by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. The area highlighted in yellow is zoned for residential use only; it is illegal to open a shop in the areas highlighted yellow.
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown is a good example of the negative aspects of urban sprawl. In many cases, you have kilometres of suburbs without adequate amenities nearby. This forces people to take their car if they want to, for example, go to the local shops or visit a local park. This increases car traffic on the roads, which in turn is worse for the environment. Photo Courtesy of the Planning and Organisational Innovation Department
