The Donabate draft Local Area Plan is due to be discussed in the Council on Monday 12th.  The three Green councillors have submitted the following motions.

Motion 1

That the draft Local Area Plan be rejected and that

1        in order to inform further consideration of the appropriate zoning of these lands,  the Manager carry out a study on the provision of rail access to the RS1 zoned lands at Corballis and Ballymastone, to consider the following possibilities
         a. the closure of the existing railway station at Donabate in favour of one to the north and one to the south of the existing station
         b. the extension of the Metro to an interchange station at the new South Donabate Railway Station
         c. the continuation of the Metro to a final stop to serve Ballymastone
         d. any other practical methods to ensure that new housing is built within walking distance of an effective integrated rail service

   2. demographic calculations of the occupation of the houses in Donabate be carried out and a phased programme be devised for the provision of educational facilities based on these calculations

   3. when redrafted the draft LAP will provide that planning permissions will be granted only in accordance with the available school capacities

   4. demographic calculations of the occupation of the houses in Donabate be carried out and a phased programme be devised for the provision of medical facilities based on these calculations

   5. when redrafted the draft LAP will designate a site for a primary health-care centre and that the bulk of the residential planning permissions will be granted only when this is provided

   6. when redrafted, the draft LAP will provide for energy standards in buildings constructed similar to those adopted in the Portmarnock LAP

Motion 2
That the following be included in the draft Local Area Plan:

Approach

Fingal County Council is committed as a priority to encouraging more sustainable development through energy end use efficiency, and increasing the use of renewable energy, in all new building projects in the designated area within the Donabate Local Area Plan. 

It will achieve this by:

·         Encouraging responsible environmental management in construction
·         Promoting sustainable approaches to housing developments by spatial planning, layout, design and detailed specification
·         Ensuring high standards of energy efficiency in all housing developments under its remit, and encouraging developers, owners, and tenants to improve the environmental performance of the building stock, including the deployment of renewable energy
·         For housing, specifically applying an improvement of 60% relative to prevailing norms as represented by the Building Regulations Part L
·         For other buildings, specifically applying an improvement of 60% relative to prevailing norms as represented by the Building Regulations Part L
·         Anticipating the operational implementation of the EU Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings (EPBD) by encouraging the energy rating and labelling of building energy performance, so as to give visible recognition to such improvements.

The specific approach proposed for developers is to set a target, accompanied by a menu of design and technology options, including renewable energy technologies, as a means of offering flexibility towards meeting that target in the most technically and economically feasible manner on a case by case basis.

As an initial step towards achieving greater environment sustainability, Fingal County Council is proposing the introduction of a performance based CO2 Emissions Target (CET) for new buildings being constructed within the Donabate Local Area Plan. 

Targets

All new buildings within the designated area will represent a significant improvement in energy and associated environmental performance relative to prevailing practice.  The following conditions apply:

A collective reduction of at least 60% in CO2 emissions deriving from total energy usage (space heating, water heating, lighting, other) arising from all services within the development, relative to a baseline of existing regulatory and design practice.  This initial baseline of comparison is to be represented by the provisions of TGD L to the Building Regulations, 2006.  In the absence of an official national methodology for determining the energy performance of non-domestic buildings, this calculation is to be carried out using a method compliant with the draft European Standard prEN 13790.

In meeting this CO2 performance target, the development shall include:
·         A collective average reduction of at least 60% in energy consumption for all services , relative to the baseline of existing regulatory and design practice and using a methodology as outlined above; and
·         A contribution of 30% by renewable energy supply systems to meet the collective energy requirements within the development. 

To illustrate the above, using the Heat Energy Rating methodology, the baseline energy performance of new housing is typically 125 kWh/m2/year for space and water heating when constructed to the minimum requirements of Building Regulations, 2002, and using a boiler with a seasonal efficiency of 75%.  This translates into a CO2 performance of 23.7 kg/m2/year using a gas fired heating system.

Fingal County Council requires that new housing developments should achieve a 60% reduction in CO2 emissions associated with space and water heating (i.e. to below 9.5 kg/m2/year), which must include a reduction in energy use for this purpose (i.e. to below 50 kWh/ m2/year) and a contribution of at least 30% by renewable energy systems to meet the collective space and water heating requirements within the development.

Menu of options

In pursuit of these targets, a strong menu of superior design and specification options will include the following:

·                     Site layout and associated bio-climatic/ passive solar design measures
·                     Enhanced levels of insulation in walls, roofs, floors, glazing and doors
·                     Reduced uncontrolled air infiltration losses
·                     Use of healthy and controllable ventilation systems
·                     Heat recovery systems
·                     Use of daylight
·                     Water conservation measures
·                     More sustainable building materials
·                     Improved heat generation appliance efficiency, e.g. condensing boilers
·                     Intelligent heating system configuration and time/ temperature/ zone/ function controls
·                     Efficient provision of domestic hot water
·                     Fuel switching to low or zero CO2 emitting fuels
·                     Energy efficient lighting systems
·                     Incorporation of renewable energy systems, e.g. active solar, heat pumps, biomass
·                     Provision of appropriate group or district heating systems.

In the case of non-domestic buildings, additional options include:

·                     Heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems and controls
·                     Electrical energy use including motive power
·                     Efficient lighting systems and controls
·                     Building Energy Management Systems
·                     Occupancy controls
·                     Monitoring and Targeting systems
·                     Combined Heat and Power (CHP).

Other measures which can contribute to the energy efficiency and renewable energy targets can also be considered.

This menu approach enables specifiers and developers to adopt approaches which are responsive to site and client circumstances and constraints, and offers the flexibility to explore and employ different mixes of options on a case by case basis, to maximise technical and economic feasibility.