I have made observations on an application for 1,350 housing units at Belcamp. The area was to have a Local Area Plan but that requirement was irresponsibly removed from the Fingal Development Plan in 2023. I previously made a submission on an application on this site which was later withdrawn.

Although close to the existing urban area, this site, unlike most of the zoned land in Fingal, lacks easy access to public transport. Supplying public transport to the site is a central challenge which hasn’t been adequately addressed. An east-west route through the site should be protected for light rail, as I have argued since 2007.

The proposed layout is highly car-dominated. The obvious alternative is to provide for car-free neighbourhoods, as encouraged by the Fingal Development Plan, whereby car parking would be in dedicated car parks on the edge of the residential areas.

This area should be laid out with the sort of separate walking/cycling network seen in Houten, in which the active travel modes get priority every time
their routes cross with motorised modes.

Childcare provision is clearly inadequate and provision should be made for more places in a number of smaller facilities in close walking distance of the different housing areas proposed.

It is incredible that only two small retail units are proposed for a development of 1350 housing units. Access to supermarkets from these new houses will be very difficult. Driving will be the forced choice, requiring car ownership for residents, but will
require use of already congested roads, adding to the already considerable congestion.

In line with 15-minute city principles, the development should provide space for small-scale employment uses.

The proposed Greenway should be designed with segregation of people walking and cycling, or, at a minimum, with sufficient space to enable that segregation to be retrofitted.

For full details, please see the observations here and the appendix here.