John Downey is the Managing Director of DOWNEY, a leading multi-disciplinary practice of Town Planners, Architects, Landscape Architects and Project Managers. John is a chartered town planner with over 25 years’ experience in planning & development within both the private and public sectors.
John is a specialist in planning applications, inter alia, planning procedures and the procurement of all planning applications through the various planning processes including S.34 applications, SHD (Strategic Housing Development) applications and the new LRD process. Though his firm they have lodged in excess of 10,000 units in the last three years and have around 850 units currently being constructed on site. They also carry out various analytic / GIS research including Housing Core Strategies for Local Authorities.
John has lectured in both the School of Planning and the School of Real Estate in TU Dublin on all planning matters.
He has also been heavily involved within the profession itself within advisory roles to Government including advising The Oireachtas (2014) and The Department of Finance (2015/20). He was part of the Advisory Group for the National Planning Framework (2017) and was on the expert panel for the formulation of the Design Standards for New Apartments – Guidelines for Planning Authorities (March 2018).
He is currently an outgoing Board Member on the ECTP-CEU (European Council of Spatial Planners) and was a former Chair of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) Ireland, in addition to being the first Irish delegate elected as a corporate member of the General Assembly of the Royal Town Planning Institute in London.