Developer to seek rezoning of 720 acres near Enniskerry

The Cosgrave Property Group is to make a "comprehensive submission" to Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for the rezoning of a 720-acre green belt at Ballyman. The belt is adjacent to Enniskerry on the Dublin-Wicklow border.

The submission, which follows two previous pre-planning submissions regarding the land, is being made in the run-up to the 2002 revision of the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Development Plan.

But the firm has also made a detailed submission on the council's draft housing strategy, which is due to be adopted by the council on Monday.

In its submission on the housing strategy, a copy of which has been seen by The Irish Times, the property company argues that significant additional zoned land is required to tackle the housing crisis and that Ballyman would represent a new "development front".

While the group accepts "numerically the existing zoned lands could meet the requirement for the duration of the [housing] plan", it argues that half of the available zoned land in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown is not yet serviced and concludes that the council should now consider limited further zoning for residential use.

The submission, which was compiled by a planning consultant, Mr Enda P. Conway, on behalf of the Cosgrave Group, explains that the proposal "has been fully researched, and the project is effectively ready to roll if given the necessary zoning designation by the council".

Mr Conway describes the Cosgrave Group as land-owners and major house-builders in the Dublin area, producing more than 400 units a year.

The zoning sought for the Ballyman lands is residential, although the entire development is described as a "community development", suggest ing that some leisure elements/green space and/or commercial development may be included in the final application.

The location of the site at Ballyman Road is close to the Wicklow border, about two miles from Enniskerry. It is also about three miles from Bray. The number of houses which would be accommodated on the site has been estimated at between 5,000 and 7,000, or about the size of an average town.

The proposal has, however, provoked outrage in both Wicklow and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, with Mr Dick Roche, a Fianna Fail TD for Wicklow, commenting that it was "truly horrific" and must be resisted.

It represented the wholesale destruction of the green belt area between Bray and Enniskerry, he said.

The Labour Party spokesman on the environment, Mr Eamon Gilmore TD, a member of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, said the development was an illustration of how landlords were attempting to turn the housing crisis to their advantage.

Zoning the land, he argued, would not solve the housing crisis on its own.

He suggested that if the council had large amounts of unserviced zoned land, it might be better to service that land rather than add new zoned land which would need additional infrastructure.