TWICE THE SIZE - DIT Update - Dublin Institute of Technology

an ad-hoc manner. In particular, the spatial mismatch between the location of new housing
development, places of employment and public transportation infrastructure has led to a
massive increase in private car use, which in turn generates a large carbon footprint that is
environmentally unsustainable.
Another key spatial trend taking place is the emergence of an economic corridor between the
two largest cities on the island of Ireland, Dublin and Belfast. The development of this corridor
was hindered for decades by political isolationism and the civil unrest in Northern Ireland.
However, since the mid-1990s, the peace process in the North has led to a significant amount of
cross-border trade. The opening of the M1 motorway in the Republic, and the enhancement of
the A1 route in Northern Ireland, has facilitated the growth in linkages between the two cities.
It is expected that the main settlements along the corridor, such as Drogheda, Dundalk and
Newry, will benefit economically from the corridor (McGreal, Berry & Williams, 2003).
Finally, policy makers have designated an ‘Atlantic Corridor’ which links the cities to the South
and West of Ireland, namely Galway, Limerick, Cork and Waterford. Whether this corridor is
generating a significant amount of linkages between these cities to the same extent as the
Dublin to Belfast corridor is open to debate, but it is hoped that the development of the Atlantic
Corridor will act as an effective counter-magnet to what is thought by many to be a
disproportionate amount of development in the East of Ireland.
INSIGHT 1: LAND VALUES: CREATION AND CAPTURE
A common theme running through all the gateway workshops and associated activities was the need to
find more effective, efficient and equitable ways of funding and managing urban development. At the
heart of this, it was found, was what is popularly described as “the land value question”.
The Land Value Question: A Contextual Framework
To a large extent, the value of land is derived from public planning, direct municipal action and general
community activity, while also being a function of prevailing economic conditions. The rationale behind
policies for land value recapture is: who should benefit? Should the private landowner be allowed to
keep the ‘unearned increment’, or should society at large reap some or all of this benefit?
Views among participants inevitably varied, but The Futures Academy suggests that any satisfactory
solution to the land value question should be:
1. Permanent.
2. Acceptable.
3. A constant and continuing stimulus to investment and development in land. Not conducive to a
stultification of the property market.
4. Administratively simple, understandable, enforceable, and not requiring the impossible of
valuers.
5. Designed to avoid arbitrariness, inaccuracy or inequity.
6. Formulated so as to conform with the primary fiscal canons of feasibility, that is, economic
neutrality and distributional equity.
7. Drawn up to facilitate planning machinery.
8. Intended to promote comprehensive development and redevelopment.
9. Conceived so as to enhance good public and private estate management.
10. Generally prepared to ensure a more effective control of land.
A Scale of Land Policies
It is possible to map-out a ‘scale’ of land policies as they relate to what has been described as ‘plus
value’. The ‘scale’ runs the gamut from considerable intervention in the private market to minimal
intervention, as follows:
Total nationalisation of land.
Substitution of long-term leasehold for freehold.
Nationalisation of development rights.
Obligation to purchase all land fir future development (pre-emption rights).
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