Feasta recently made a submission to the Irish Department of the Environment, Heritage & Local Government on their guidelines for Sustainable Residential Developments in Urban Areas.
In general, we welcome these Guidelines and Urban Design Manual as they comprise a good outline of current best practice, an improvement on the current situation. But we fear that the Guidelines are too late; they address an economic reality that is rapidly changing; they largely ignore pressures in rural areas and they are not ambitious enough to properly address the energy, climate and social challenges currently facing Ireland.
