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Golf club housing plan a blow to Dun Laoghaire

Thursday, 26 June 2008

The concerns of local people were “ignored” after An Bord Pleanala controversially granted planning permission for the massive Dún Laoghaire Golf Club development, it was claimed last week.
Almost 450 people objected to the proposed scheme by Cosgrave Developments, which includes 856 apartments and houses along with shops, offices, roads and a crèche.
The former golf club land, which is located on a 78-acre site right in the heart of Dún Laoghaire, was bought by the developers in a deal that included the relocation of the club to another course - Ballyman - near Enniskerry.
The club gained a reported e20 million to relocate to the new clubhouse and 27-hole course in Co Wicklow.
The Dun Laoghaire land was controversially rezoned in 2004 after the then Minister for the Environment, Martin Cullen, issued a statutory directive to the council to rezone more land in the area to provide extra housing under the 2000 Planning Act.
Last week, the planning appeals board attached some 58 conditions subject to the granting of planning permission for the development.
In making its decision, the board ruled that the proposed development would not contravene the provisions of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown’s county development plan.
They added that the scheme “would not seriously injure the amenities of the area or of property in the vicinity and would be acceptable in terms of traffic safety and convenience”.
Chairwoman of the Combined Residents To Save Open Space (CRSOS) and local Green Party councillor, Gene Feighery, said the board had ignored the concerns voiced by locals about the proposals. She described the conditions attached to the permission as “superficial”.
“The concerns of hundreds of individual residents in the Dun Laoghaire area have been ignored and not even addressed by the An Bord Pleanala decision,” she said.
“The rezoning and granting of permission to this proposed development was on the basis that it was sustainable in terms of traffic, infrastructure, water/sewage, open space provision, public transport and social and affordable housing.
“However, the silence in relation to what is not mentioned in An Bord Pleanala's decision is deafening.
“The conditions that they have attached to the planning permission are all superficial. They haven’t even addressed the location of the social and affordable housing and the traffic.”
She added: “I think it is a serious blow for democracy and a serious blow for the will of the people in Dún Laoghaire. There were 480 submissions for this development and one for it.”
Cllr Feighery said that councillors who originally rezoned the site four years ago subsequently voted last year for the creation of a local area plan, which she described as a “damage limitation exercise”.
Cosgrave Developments intend to develop the 40-acres northern section of the course at a later date.
In total, the development will have about 1,700 residential units. It is anticipated that the first phase will take at least five years to complete.

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