County council to end secrecy around planning applications

Kildare County Council is to dispense with traditional "closed door" secrecy in considering planning submissions, including a proposal to rezone 249 acres of farmland, part of Clongowes Wood College.

Councillors, who met in closed session yesterday to consider submissions from landowners as part of the drafting of the 2005 County Development Plan, decided to hold its next meeting in public.

On the agenda yesterday was a number of submissions from property owners calling for their holdings to be rezoned.

They included a submission on behalf of the Jesuit Community, which owns Clongowes Wood College and controls its surrounding farm through a trust.

The proposal is to rezone the land to allow for a hotel, golf course and equestrian centre as part of a new leisure complex which would include tourist accommodation. Also envisaged is a craft courtyard, tennis courts and other sports facilities.

A buffer would remain between the proposed development and the 170-acre site containing the college buildings, grounds, nine-hole golf course and playing fields.

The rezoning would multiply the value of the land by at least a factor of 10, from a current estimate of about €4.8 million to almost €50 million. It is not envisaged that the Jesuits would develop the land, but would sell it to a property developer.

In its submission for rezoning, Keith Simpson and Associates, which drew up the plans on behalf of the Jesuits, says similar integrated leisure developments - such as the K Club - have been approved in Kildare, Meath and north Dublin.

However, at yesterday's meeting the county manager, Mr Niall Bradley, made a general comment suggesting that specific zoning objectives, such as that applying to the Jesuits' land, would be best left to be adopted by way of local area plans (LAPs), which would be considered after the broader framework of the County Development Plan.

Councillors, however, are not bound by the manager's advice, and may take a strategic view that a development is important to the county for reasons such as economic development connected with tourism.

The proposal to rezone the Clongowes site was not reached in yesterday's order of business, but councillors are likely to get to the submission at their meeting on November 6th.