The Planning Authority is turning away architects filing Development Notifications Order submissions as no applications are being accepted until the minister approves a new legal notice in place, it has emerged.
The notice came into force earlier this week, an authority spokesman confirmed to this newspaper, after the previous legal notice was repealed and its provisions revised.
“The Authority will restart accepting DNOs once the new legal notice is approved by the minister, which is targeted for early next week,” the spokesman said.
Architects who complained to this newspaper said they were never consulted about this and were not even aware that no DNO submissions were being accepted, only learning of this when turning up to file the submissions.
One architect said he had informed his clients that he would be submitting the DNO applications but once at the authority’s office, he was informed that for the time being, these could not be filed.
“I had two clients who were expecting me to file DNOs. I walked in there and they turned me away. We knew there would be changes, but we were not even given a heads-up to get our things in order,” the architect, who did not wish to be named, said. He added he was given no information on what the new procedures would be.
According to the Planning Authority, the changes in the new legal notice include the introduction of a “new type of planning application which will sit alongside the familiar full development application and the DNO”.
The new planning application will be known as ‘summary procedures’ and will incorporate development types which have been removed from the present DNO, development works which do not require external consultations and works which are easily assessed by existing planning policies.
The summary procedures have been categorised into 12 development types, the authority said.
Meanwhile, the Chamber of Architects and Civil Engineers yesterday deplored the fact that the authority was failing to carry out “proper consultation with it on matter relating to planning application procedures”.
The chamber said the legal notice of 2007 was revoked without architects being given any prior notice.
“This is specifically in breach of the provisions of Article 55 of the Development Planning Act which oblige the executive council of the authority to formally consult with the chamber,” the association said, adding that as a result the architects were not in a position to advise their clients in an adequate and informed manner.
Reacting to the claims, the authority said that in the past weeks it had held various meetings with the chamber, denying that it was breaking the law by introducing the new procedures.
The new legal notice stipulates a number of provisions that had not been included in the former notice. According to the authority, one of the new procedures would ensure that when a notice was affixed to a property where interventions were proposed, the public had 15 days to submit objections. A registered objector had the right to appeal against a decision. Summary procedures applications would be decided within 42 days. Previously, DNO decisions were made within 30 days.
For a full development application, while the period for the public to submit objections has been increased to 30 days, the established timeframe for such applications to be determined was a maximum of a 100-day window from the date of validation, the authority said.
All planning development permissions issued would be automatically temporarily suspended for 30 days from the publication of the decision. According to the authority, this better safeguards the rights of registered objectors to submit an appeal.
The new legal notice introduces a penalty on the authority when it does not honour the legal timeframe in the processing of a planning application. For major projects planning applications, the daily penalty is of €500, whereas for full development applications and summary procedures, the daily rate is of €100 and €25 respectively, provided that the refund does not exceed 50 per cent of the development planning fee. The applicant has a 30-day period in which to submit to the authority a request for a refund.
The screening process which was applied in the previous system will only be retained for applications concerning major projects unless the applicant is in possession of an outline development permit which will state the timeframe by when a full development permit must be submitted to the authority.