Thursday, February 17, 2011

Court grants nuns review of 'unfair' land zoning plan

The Religious Sisters of Charity (RSC) have welcomed the decision by the High Court to grant them a judicial review of Dublin City Council’s 2011-2017 City Development Plan that the Sisters believe applies unfair and restrictive zoning conditions on their lands.

A spokesperson for the Religious Sisters of Charity told CI News that the Sisters were now hoping that a judicial review would go ahead “as quickly as possible.”

The RSC is seeking the review in order to try to overturn the City Council’s redesignation of their lands as Community and Institutional Resource Lands (Education, Recreation, Community, Green Infrastructure and Health) - Zone Z15.

Under the terms of Z15, privately owned land is treated as resource land for use by the community.  

Z15 zoning conditions are far more restrictive than those under which the Sisters of Charity’s land was previously designated.  

The Sisters claim this redesignation has unfairly targeted their 108 acres across the city.

The redesignation was revealed when the development plan was unveiled last November.  

Its provision came into effect on 22 December 2010.  

The new conditions apply to 18 lots of land belonging to the order at St Vincent’s Private Hospital, St Mary’s, Donnybrook, the Hospice, Harold’s Cross, and a number of school sites in the north and south of the city.

In a statement, the Sisters said, “This zoning has a significant impact on the property interests of the Religious Sisters of Charity.”

In their submission to the High Court, the order claimed the Council’s plan was “unreasonable, irrational and substantively illegal.”

The Sisters criticised the decision to apply a Z15 type of zoning to an arbitrary selection of lands, which they said seemed to affect land mainly belonging to the Religious Sisters of Charity and those of other religious orders.

In a statement, the Sisters said, “The basis on which lands appear to have been selected for the Z15 zoning is their ownership by institutions, particularly religious institutions.  There are numerous examples of lands that are owned by institutions, other than religious institutions, not being subject to Z15 zoning.”

They added, “However, the privately owned land that is zoned Z15 is almost exclusively owned by religious institutions.  The Z15 zoning is targeted at the owners of religious institutions.  In short, the Z15 zoning puts the owners of religious institutions at a particular disadvantage compared with other persons.”

The Z15 zoning is markedly more restrictive than almost any other zoning imposed by the Council under the Development Plan. 

Zoning land as Z15 gives it a designation that prevents the land being put forward for housing development in the future.  

In their statement, the Sisters explained, “The Sisters seek to use their properties to support their religious mission, including providing the funds that are necessary to support their work.”

According to Brian Murray SC, who is acting on behalf of the Religious Sisters of Charity, the Sisters made extensive legal submissions to Dublin City Council during the preparation of the development plan and these submissions outlined the same concerns as were submitted during in the High Court proceedings.

He said the City Council gave no explanation as to why their submissions had been ignored.