Planning for you

Using innovation to enhance the local democracy of a county is a relatively simple concept. The planning permission process which is the responsibility of South Dublin County Council starts with the County Development Plan. This sets out a policy framework by which each subsequent planning application is considered. In times past the planning process may have seemed very distant to the citizen however today, through harnessing of the power of the Internet and technology, the citizen can get involved at many different levels.

So, how can you you - the citizen be involved?

To begin with, how can you find out what developments are being proposed?

The screen shown above is the “search and view” function of the Council’s planning web page. It can be found on the South Dublin County Council website. You can easily filter the data by date, area, keyword or specific register reference. At a glance you can see who the applicant is and where the application relates to. You can see if documents or maps are yet available. You can click on the reg ref (planning register reference) to see the full details and access any documents or maps attached to the planning file.

When you open any planning application, you can enter your email address in the box provided and our systems will notify you about any changes that are detected on this application.

As soon as it is marked up on the Council’s digital planning register there is available to you an option to map the application. When you click on this option a map is loaded in a separate window showing the application and an other applications around it. Each site is linked. When you click a site the system will then provide you with a link to the detail of the selected planning application. This is very useful for enquiring about the planning history of an area.

How about viewing the actual planning file?

Using the online service and innovations that are available to the user, each application is presented with any documents which have been lodged or submitted in an electronic format.  The entire planning file is on-line. Should you decide to visit our offices, you will find the exact same documents - nothing more and nothing less.

The display tells you the description of the file, the type of file, and the size of the file.  Earlier this year the Council began to use the latest in compression technology so that we can reproduce the colour the documents related to a planning application.  This requires a browser plug in which is linked to the document type.

The downloaded file is an exact reproduction of what you would get on the planning file in the offices of South Dublin County Council.

There are lots more that you can do on-line at www.sdcc.ie.  Why not stop by and spend a while.  It might surprise you how easy it is to interact with your local authority.