CORK County Council has approved a draft variation to its County Development Plan to allow it to zone more land for housing.

The approval follows a lengthy in-committee meeting last week at which councillors voted in favour of the draft variation.

The local authority said that if adopted the amended plan would provide enough zoned land to deliver an additional 38,000 homes over the next decade.

The plan will now go out for public display and consultation from March 10th. The local authority said the variation would help to ‘considerably accelerate housing delivery’.

The move to zone more land for residential development is in line with a government directive sent to all local authorities last year by Housing Minister James Browne.

In a strongly-worded letter sent to all local authorities Minister Browne threatened to override councils in order to rezone land to speed up the delivery of housing if they did not begin the process.

A first letter was sent last July but six months later, with only two of the 31 councils (Mayo and Waterford) completing the process he wrote to local authorities for a second time.

With a population of more than 360,000 Cork County is the largest local authority in the country based on geographic spread.

In a statement Cork County Council said: ‘This significant and forward-looking variation represents a major step in meeting the housing demands of a rapidly-growing county over the next decade.

‘The variation proposes to significantly enhance the council’s capacity to meet housing delivery… through the provision of a substantial quantum of zoned land.’

No specifics have been outlined in terms of the number of additional acres or hectares of land the local authority proposes to zone for housing, but it has indicated that as many as 38,000 new homes could be built as a result.

But the local authority stated the move ‘demonstrates Cork County Council’s commitment to delivering the scale of new homes needed for a thriving future, ensuring that housing supply expands in line with national obligations and the county’s ambition for sustainable, balanced development’.

It confirmed that the variation was prepared ‘in response to Ministerial Guidelines issued under Section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended)’.

‘The variation responds directly to Government’s request for implementing the National Planning Framework: Housing Growth Requirements, and the clear ambition for accelerated sustainable housing delivery across County Cork. This variation provides additional residential land use zoning and additional provision headroom in main towns and villages, designed to deliver housing supply at scale.

‘This approach supports the Government’s request for increased delivery capacity and could enable the development of a baseline figure of 38,000 new homes over a ten-year horizon, ensuring Cork County is positioned to accommodate future population and economic growth.

In his second letter to council chiefs, seven months after the first communication, Minister Browne warned of ‘serious concern’ within the Cabinet over the slow pace of rezoning land and reminded them of their ‘collective responsibility’ to address the problem.

The government has now instructed councils that have started to update their development plans to complete the process by April 30. The Department of Housing wants more land zoned urgently to allow for planning applications to be immediately lodged.