Mayo councillors open up 195 hectares for housing development

Mayo County Council have opened up an additional 195 hectares of land for housing throughout the county after agreeing to vary the current County Development Plan.

The variation to the County Development Plan will now result in the release of approximately 195 hectares of previously zoned Strategic Residential Reserve lands with the revised plan now targeting a growth of 1,100 additional households.

The rezoning of the land for residential development followed a directive from Minister of Housing, James Browne to all councils in June asking them to identify land that can be zoned for housing.

Mayo became the first local authority in the State to make a variation in accordance with the minister's directive as the Strategic Residential Reserve lands which were part of the Local Area Plans for Westport, Ballina and Castlebar were all serviced and ready for development. 

The variation was agreed unanimously at the December meeting of Mayo County Council on Monday where councillors agreed that fasttracking the variation is the right thing to do to address the housing crisis in the county.

“It will take one of the reasons as to why housing is not happening and will free up available land,” commented Fianna Fail councillor Damien Ryan who proposed the variation.

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“It is more that we were asked to do but it is the right thing to do. It is not the be all and end all of how we will solve this but as councillors we are trying to take the responsible role in as fast a timeframe as we can and we will be one of the first local authorities to return this back to the Minister.”

The proposal was seconded by Fine Gael councillor Peter Flynn who said it is an important step forward for the delivery of housing in the county.

“There are a lot more factors involved but the key role as councillors is in relation to zoning and delighted to say we have 195 additional hectares of land being zoned as primary residential land in the county.

“It will still not resolve issues particularly getting builders and the cost of building but at least we will have delivered. We are the first council in the country to get the variation over the line. I pay compliment to the forward planning team for fast tracking it and getting it over the line and to elected members across all parties to achieve the one goal,” he said.

As part of the agreement to support the variation, councillors were given a commitment by the council executive that further variations of the County Development Plan will take place in 2026.

Cllr Ryan said he looked forward to the review and that there are a lot of things which need to be addressed in it.

“There are many fine things in the plan which don't need to be touched at all and some things need to be amended and sooner the happier public reps will be,” he said.

Catherine McConnell, Director of Services with responsibility for planning thanked the councillors for their co-operation and that the variation is effective immediately.

Regarding subsequent variations to the plan, Ms McConnell pointed out that there is 'only a small team' working on planning and it will be the early Q2 of 2026 before they will be able to sit down and talk to councillors about what they want from the plan.