Pre-Planning Meeting - Yes or No?

catch--22

Hi there.

We are at the very early stages at looking to build a home on land owned by my father and looking for advice about attending a pre-planning meeting this early or not.

Our site is a section of my parents large garden in Fingal. There is currently a barn that we plan on replacing with a small 3 bed dormer. We don't have a design, only a rough idea of what we would need in a home.

My father, who built his house on the site and would have a lot of experience in this area, suggested we meet with the planners early and get a sense of what they would want in a planning application; any initial concerns or if its a non-runner altogether. It would mean we don't spend significant money to be told there is nothing we can do to get PP on this site.

However we have relatives, who are just breaking ground on their own self-build elsewhere in Fingal and have just gone through the whole PP process, who are adamant we should not meet with the planners until we have everything in place to argue our case for PP. Their belief is that the CC are going to say no straight away if we don't have a strong case and have done all the prep work.

So now I'm not sure - is the pre planning meeting there to guide us in the right direction before we create designs etc or is it to see an almost finished application and advise on final tweaks etc before submitting? Could we harm our chances of getting PP if we meet too early?

Thanks in advance.

Dudda

Providing you can prove a housing need they can’t really tell you no house will ever be allowed unless it’s a flood zone, has no access or something else major. If an existing barn exists I’m presuming this isn’t the case.

In generally I find it best if you meet the planners when you’ve something to talk about but you don’t want it fully designed or worked out as you want to be able to let them feel they can influence the design and comment on it. I think planners want to feel like they’re in control so you want to give them something to talk about but also something they can influence or modify.

If you go in with nothing you won’t get a lot out of the meeting. It will be just general what’s required in terms of guidelines which are all available online. You also don’t when them to design the house for you.

brav

I would always say yes.

We got out architect to meet with them, no real design going in just basic overall idea of a 4 bed bungalow etc, no drawings.
In the Pre planning they suggested what they would accept, and the place on site where to put house etc, we did that and no objections.

I think going with architect helped because they might see a proper planned house integrated in to the site/area well

sydthebeat

catch--22 wrote: »

is the pre planning meeting there to guide us in the right direction before we create designs etc or is it to see an almost finished application and advise on final tweaks etc before submitting? Could we harm our chances of getting PP if we meet too early?
.

very much the former....

its an informal meeting in which a planner will alert you to possible issues in an application.