Site with existing house - Planning Risks?

bemak

We've been looking for a house for a while and an opportunity has come up of late to purchase an acre in Kildare on which is a very small house (40sqm). Does the fact that the site already has a small house (in a liveable condition) reduce a lot of the risk from a planning point of view?

Obviously the plan would be to extend the house by circa 120-140sqm and make a family home of it but is there a likelihood that the planners might say no? I had a look through recent applications in the area and the planners have been very firm in refusing new one-off development as they don't want to "set a precedent for ad hoc housing in the area". The site itself is located in the middle of a row of houses so there wouldn't be any risk of ribbon development. Could the same argument be made if we submitted an application to extend the small house from a densification point of view?

I wouldn't be surprised, it would be a very Irish thing to do when there's a housing crisis!!

sydthebeat

bemak wrote: »

We've been looking for a house for a while and an opportunity has come up of late to purchase an acre in Kildare on which is a very small house (40sqm). Does the fact that the site already has a small house (in a liveable condition) reduce a lot of the risk from a planning point of view?

Obviously the plan would be to extend the house by circa 120-140sqm and make a family home of it but is there a likelihood that the planners might say no? I had a look through recent applications in the area and the planners have been very firm in refusing new one-off development as they don't want to "set a precedent for ad hoc housing in the area". The site itself is located in the middle of a row of houses so there wouldn't be any risk of ribbon development. Could the same argument be made if we submitted an application to extend the small house from a densification point of view?

I wouldn't be surprised, it would be a very Irish thing to do when there's a housing crisis!!

have a very close look at pages 12 and 13


http://www.kildare.ie/CountyCouncil/Planning/DevelopmentPlans/KildareCountyDevelopmentPlan2017-2023/Volume1/16.%20Rural%20Design.pdf

and keep in mind your talking about nearly quadrupling the size of the house....

bemak

that's interesting. The location of the house on the site is very awkward so you'd never get an extension behind it per say. I think there are more than one approach though when adding to a small house. The site would make it easy to create a 'farmyard' type extension which is a very familiar sight in the irish rural landscape.

sydthebeat

bemak wrote: »

that's interesting. The location of the house on the site is very awkward so you'd never get an extension behind it per say. I think there are more than one approach though when adding to a small house. The site would make it easy to create a 'farmyard' type extension which is a very familiar sight in the irish rural landscape.

Exactly, the design is key.... And not cheap

bemak

I'm an architect hence the opportunity excites me! This is an interesting listing on Daft in that, you could imagine the outbuildings as being extensions to the main house.

I think there are definitely solutions out there - but the last thing we want is to buy a site that we can only extend by 40sqm! Need to de-risk it.

sydthebeat

A nice project then.

If you've time to do a pre planning meeting before committing then it world be worth doing

bemak

sydthebeat wrote:

If you've time to do a pre planning meeting before committing then it world be worth doing

Defo. Long wait time though at the moment. Might try to get the ball rolling

Metric Tensor

In fairness I've very rarely seen a local authority "against" the idea of an extension. They may have problems with the shape, finish, layout, etc. - but sensitively designed extensions seem to be well treated in most cases.

One comment I will add though is that effluent treatment can be a big problem. If you increase the size (and hence capacity) of the house then if there is on site effluent treatment it may need to be upgraded - which is not always possible. In fact I've frequently seen upgrades mandated even when the house occupancy has stayed the same.

bemak

Metric Tensor wrote:

One comment I will add though is that effluent treatment can be a big problem. If you increase the size (and hence capacity) of the house then if there is on site effluent treatment it may need to be upgraded - which is not always possible. In fact I've frequently seen upgrades mandated even when the house occupancy has stayed the same.

I would take that as a given in this case. I wouldnt be hanging my hat in what's there already and would be proposing a new system. Fortunately the area is there for it