Hundreds of acres of land earmarked for housing in Mayo

Councillors in Mayo are appealing to developers of small and large housing estates to commence new projects in the county.

The councillors made their remarks at last week's monthly meeting after adopting a proposal to zone 480 acres of new housing development land in the county.

Recommending the proposal be approved, Fine Gael Cllr Peter Flynn remarked: “This is not the perfect solution but it is a quick win for us with 480 acres of land coming back into new residential zoning, which will hopefully allow developers come forward and move at speed to build housing estates around our county and help those who are struggling.” 

The proposal was seconded by Fianna Fáil Cllr Damien Ryan, who said issues around the lack of builders and too many planning regulations needed to be addressed if the new housing targets set for Mayo are to be achieved.

Cllr Michael Burke was also skeptical, noting: “This won’t solve our housing problems because you could re-zone all of County Mayo but I can tell you, no developer is building at the moment.”

Independent Cllr Michael Kilcoyne called for the “imaginary line operating around urban areas to be removed”, adding: “We have a situation where people want to build houses on their land and this is serviced land with water, sewerage and electricity connections, but because they live outside these imaginary lines, they are being turned down.” 

Cllr Gerry Coyle also wanted more zone extensions for housing, specifying a “fully serviced place in Bangor where two builders have the finance to build houses but are not permitted". He added that people should not have to prove they are from an area before getting permission to build a house.

“People baptised in the water in Doohoma and Geesala whose grandfather’s house lies across the road from a site are being asked to prove they are from there. Somebody who never slept a night in Erris should not be asking them to prove they are from there.” 

Cllr Harry Barrett said the re-zoning was "not going to make a blind bit of difference".

“The target is now for 1,111 houses to be built in Mayo in 2025 but how can this happen when only 525 were built last year? Opening up tracts of land is no good. The most pressing issue has to be for the Minister to impress on Irish Water and utility providers the need to build out their networks.” 

Director of Services Catherine McConnell conceded that “unlocking the zoned land for immediate development won’t solve all problems but it will create more choice and, crucially, it will stop those on current new residential zoned land from controlling the market".

• Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.