Dobbiamo fermare le frivole sfide legali che aggiungono migliaia di dollari ai costi di costruzione delle case

I hate it when a developer makes a good point.

>The Government must also mandate the fast-track planning and environmental court process to do its job and end the constant delays in decision-making. In tandem, the bar for judicial reviews needs to be raised and all parties need to be at risk of incurring costs.

If we get a fast track planning court (and by fast track, let’s say 1-2 months) – why do we still need to raise the bar and increase the cost for people raising them?

Already theres a huge amount of research on the Irish judicial system and how the cost in general is rendering access to the courts for civil matters impossible for most people. We absolutely don’t need to raise that bar higher, as it won’t meaningfully affect residents in well-off areas (where the majority of JRs against planning are) but will deny residents in other areas access even if their complaints are legitimate.

I have 70 apartments staring into my back garden because a developer of BTRs meaningfully contravened the local area plan and built them far closer to my home than they should have, and at greater height than they should have. I couldn’t afford 40k for a JR (the local county council didn’t care that they contravened local planning regs) and anyway I was mostly happy to have them as the area is a sleepy suburban dormitory setting with very few amenities and the development included a cafe and a shop, while bringing in lots of fresh new faces.

Nonetheless, the developer could have built 510 instead of 550 apartments and built them legally.

Ironically, if I had JRed it, I’m sure the article about it would have been posted here and fully or comments about NIMBYs when the reality (as usual with JRs) is that the developer knew they put in a planning application that wasn’t legal but wanted to chance their arm.

All that said, for the love of god, just legislate for a fast track planning court and start hiring. While they’re at it, maybe they could fund more urban planning/economics masters and start requiring employees in ABP and county councils to complete them.