The cabinet has given the green light to a radical new bill, which would allow the government to acquire land at below the market rate for critical public projects.
Environment minister John Gormley’s land bill promises to curb the exorbitant cost of building land for public projects such as schools, rail and other amenities. The heads of the Designated Land Bill will now be drawn up, and it is expected to come to cabinet before the summer recess for formal approval.
The bill, which will apply initially to housing development, will be used as a wider vehicle for the state’s acquisition of zoned land for a range of critical infrastructure under the National Development Plan.
Landowners have made record profits from the sale of sites needed for schools and public projects, such as the Luas line in south Dublin. A controversial ‘use it or lose it’ mechanism may set a five-year time limit for landowners to develop zoned land or have it acquired on a compulsory basis at below the market value.
Alternatively, a development incentive levy could be imposed on designated land, based on a percentage of the estimated market value of the land. The value of land purchased on this basis would be higher than agricultural rates, but significantly lower than market rates. However, the precise valuation mechanism has yet to be determined.
An All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution report on building land in 2003 proposed a compulsory purchase price that was 25 per cent above agricultural land rates. The government anticipates that landowners and developers are likely to mount a legal challenge to the bill, claiming it breaches private property rights.
However, the legislation is viewed by government as a test case to establish the principle of a ‘common good’ for acquisition by the state of private land.
‘‘I have no doubt that any legislation affecting land rights will be tested in the courts, but we do have to address this issue, because, at the moment, land prices are unsustainable, in terms of providing good quality infrastructure,” Gormley told The Sunday Business Post.
Sunday Business Post
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