Sustainable Urban Planning: Seven Recommendations for National Spatial Policy 

Over the course of this series, we have examined how Ireland’s spatial planning system seeks to shape the location, distribution, and form of future urban growth. Beginning with the structure of Irish spatial policy, the series traced the hierarchy of plans from national to neighbourhood level (article 1), before considering how settlements are classified, how urban boundaries are defined, and how these frameworks influence where and at what density development takes place (article 3). 

This review highlighted how settlement hierarchies vary across national and regional policy, with differences in terminology and classification criteria evident (article 2). At the same time, multiple administrative, morphological, statistical, and functional boundaries can apply to a single urban area, each serving a different planning purpose.  

The series then examined the National Planning Framework’s objectives for distributing future population growth. At the regional scale, the ambition to balance growth between the Eastern and Midland Region and the rest of the country was considered against long-term trends towards greater population concentration in the east (article 4). At the settlement scale, targets to concentrate a greater share of growth within Ireland’s five cities were similarly assessed against historical patterns of suburbanisation and the continued growth of smaller towns and settlements. Recent evidence suggests that directing population growth towards designated cities and regions remains challenging, particularly where policy objectives run counter to established demographic and settlement trends (article 5). 

Finally, the analysis considered the National Planning Framework’s compact growth objectives and the extent to which new housing is being delivered within existing built-up areas. Although national benchmarks have generally been exceeded, these aggregate figures conceal substantial differences between regions and settlement types. In particular, higher levels of consolidation in the Eastern and Midland Region contrast with more dispersed patterns elsewhere, demonstrating the limitations of national targets as a measure of compact growth (article 6). 

Taken together, the research points to a central challenge: Ireland’s spatial planning framework contains clear ambitions for balanced regional development and more compact settlements, but the mechanisms used to translate these ambitions into patterns of development are not sufficiently aligned with one another or responsive to existing spatial trends.  

This final article draws together the findings of the series and considers recommendations for a more effective framework for sustainable urban development. 

Recommendations 

1. Replace national compact growth benchmarks with settlement-specific targets 

The current national benchmarks established under NPOs 7, 8, and 9 aggregate substantial differences between regions, settlement types, and individual settlements. This can result in national-level compliance even where development patterns at the settlement scale are becoming more dispersed. To counter this aggregation effect, compact growth targets should be established and monitored at the settlement level.  

2. Align population targets with existing regional settlement patterns 

Regional population targets should be based on the capacity of existing urban systems to accommodate additional growth. This should include consideration of existing urban populations according to the size, number, and distribution of existing settlements. 

This is particularly important in the Northern and Western Region, where the existing settlement structure has limited capacity to accommodate the level of urban population growth envisaged by national policy. Regional population targets should therefore be reassessed to ensure that ambitions for balanced regional development do not encourage dispersed development and undermine compact growth objectives. 

3. Introduce city-specific population growth targets 

Shared population growth targets for Ireland’s five cities do not adequately reflect substantial differences in their historical and recent growth trajectories. Population targets should instead be established for individual cities, taking account of their existing populations, development patterns,  and capacity for future growth. 

4. Apply consistent dwelling location requirements across towns and cities 

Current differences in dwelling location requirements according to settlement size – where towns are allocated lower compact growth targets than cities – should be removed. The principle of directing development towards existing built-up areas should apply consistently across the urban system, while individual targets should respond to the specific characteristics and capacity of each settlement. 

5. More settlement-scale planning 

The research indicates that compact growth is shaped by factors operating at a much finer scale than national policy, including land zoning, settlement size, housing markets, and site-level design. Greater emphasis should therefore be placed on settlement-scale plans that can respond directly to these conditions and direct development towards more compact forms. These plans should provide a clear spatial framework for the location, density, and form of future growth. 

6. Adopt more direct measures of compact growth 

Targeting the location of new dwellings within existing built-up areas provides only a partial measure of compact growth. Monitoring should incorporate more direct morphological measures capable of identifying whether settlements are becoming more compact or fragmented over time. 

7. Link compactness to wider measures of sustainable development 

Compactness should not be treated as an end in itself. Further assessment is required to determine whether settlements experiencing compact growth are also providing the wider sustainability benefits associated with this development model. 

Settlement compactness should therefore be assessed alongside access to public transport, active travel potential, services, amenities, and other indicators of sustainable development. This would help identify which settlements are best placed to accommodate future growth and ensure that compact growth policy contributes to broader environmental, social, and economic objectives. To this end, the IGBC has developed the PLACE tool – a new method for measuring location-based sustainability. Work is ongoing to adapt this approach for multi-scalar applications. 

Conclusion 

Taken together, these recommendations suggest a need for a more geographically specific, multi-scalar approach to compact growth. National policy should continue to establish the overall direction of spatial development, but targets and monitoring mechanisms need to recognise the substantial diversity of Ireland’s regions, cities, towns, and settlements. This would help close the gap between policy compliance and policy effectiveness, ensuring that compact growth objectives translate into more sustainable patterns of development.