It may take up to 2½ years before anything is developed on the derelict Dún Laoghaire baths site, according to the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown county manager.
Mr Derek Brady was speaking yesterday after Monday night's council meeting, at which councillors voted against the Pierse Group's proposed development for the site. An alternative project by Bennet Group was eliminated from the development competition because it extended beyond the site boundary.
Mr Brady said he would be surprised if plans for a new competition were in place before November or December. "I'm not going to advertise the competition again, unless I have absolute clarity on what they want," he said.
"It's inevitable that it's going to take longer. I was very disappointed going home last night."
Mr Ged Pierse, managing director of Pierse, said that the site would now "lie there with rats running all over it".
He added: "It's an insult to the promenade."
He remained confident that the plans submitted by his company provided for the correct treatment of the site and the company would have to see the new terms of the competition before resubmitting its plans.
Mr Daniel Bennet of Bennet also said his company's proposal was "a very good project, but there'll be plenty more".
Labour councillor Mr Chris O'Malley said the Labour group on the council "had already decided it could not support the Pierse Group proposal, as it involves building either offices or apartments on a completely inappropriate seafront site and because of inadequate provision of parking".
Some local residents welcomed Monday's outcome.
The decision represented a "huge victory for people power", Mr Richard Boyd Barrett, convenor of the "Save Our Seafront Campaign", said yesterday. The group's protests had "forced the council to listen to us and what ordinary residents want", he said.
Mr Boyd Barrett said the group intended to escalate its campaign and organise a public gathering to put pressure on the council into "representing the view of the public rather than the view of developers."
Councillors voted on Monday night against the Pierse Group's plans for a 19-storey "apart-hotel" following the elimination of the Bennet proposal.