Ballsbridge residents to meet councillors

A coalition of 15 residents' associations from the Ballsbridge area in Dublin will begin meetings with city councillors this morning in advance of tonight's city council meeting, which is set to debate amendments to the area's development plan.

City management has recommended a change to zoning in the Ballsbridge area, which opponents claim is designed to facilitate the development of high-rise buildings of about 20 storeys, particularly on the sites of the adjoining Jurys Hotel and Towers and Berkeley Court hotels, as well as at the adjacent former Veterinary College on Shelbourne Road.

The proposed changes in the draft local area plan were recommended to councillors by assistant city manager Michael Stubbs in a letter received by some councillors as recently as last Thursday.

The changes were, however, expected following pre-planning discussions between a number of property developers in the area and council planners.

This morning's meetings between area councillors from Dublin South East precedes a local area meeting at 3pm, at which members will seek to achieve a consensus on the issue.

At 6.45pm, the full 52-member city council will meet and the draft area plan is expected to be reached early in the course of the meeting. A capacity crowd is expected in the public gallery.

Some of the State's best-known property developers, who have amassed high-profile sites in Ballsbridge over the past few years, will be interested in the meeting's outcome.

Sean Dunne of Mountbrook Homes paid €260 million for Jurys Hotel and Towers and a further €119 million for the Berkeley Court in Ballsbridge in late 2005.

Ray Grehan of Glenkerrin Homes paid the State €84 million an acre for the adjacent veterinary college site. Other well-known land owners within the scope of the Ballsbridge Local Area Plan are Bernard McNamara, David Courtney and Gerry O'Reilly. The key change that would affect Ballsbridge is a change from residential to favouring mixed use. It argues that a mix of housing, offices and shops will be complementary, boosting activity and employment in the area.

But local area councillor and former Dublin lord mayor Dermot Lacey claims the plan is "flawed beyond redemption" and will call for it to be rejected. However, he accepts some "densification" is necessary and said he was open to submissions on good quality developments.

He said yesterday he believed the area covered by the proposed changes was too large. "It is a massive area and runs from the Merrion Gates to Angelsea Road and from halfway up Pembroke Road to the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown boundary," he said.

Mr Lacey and PD councillor Wendy Hederman proposed more than half of the amendments to the current Dublin City Development Plan, which Mr Lacey said shows they are "willing and anxious" to work with current proposals. "But," he said, "this local area plan starts off from too high a base to be amended. It must either be deferred or, preferably, rejected."

Cllr Kevin Humphries predicted the defeat of the local area plan. He said that while many councillors accepted the need for higher density, "we are going to have a lot of development at Ballsbridge, the RDS and at the conference centre. We need to see some quality hotels retained in the area as we are losing the Burlington, Tara Tower, Jurys, Towers, and Berkeley Court."