At Monday’s meeting the Council agreed to my motion to write to the Minister for Housing to ask that sites with housing planning permissions but which are currently used as car parks no longer be exempted from the Residential Zoned Land Tax. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I became aware of this exemption in the context of the recent Variation to the County Development Plan<\/a>, where we rezoned green belt and rural land despite the availability of well-located, fully serviced residential land with planning permissions. In the Variation process, I asked for details<\/a> of the undeveloped sites with planning permission and found that these sites included two on car parking at Blanchardstown Shopping Centre for 1319 apartments, and one on car parking in Santry for 192 apartments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The owner of the Blanchardstown sites has gone on public record that they are deferring their development of these apartments: “In respect of the permitted Site A and Site B\/C permissions, due to current viability challenges, these developments are expected to come forward in the medium term…”<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n A majority of the Council supported my motion, with one FG councillor voting against and eight councillors abstaining. <\/p>\n\n\n\n