Councillors fail in bid to ‘down zone’ Clonkeen College land

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown county councillors have been told they do not have the legal ability to rezone playing pitches used by Clonkeen College.

The Christian Brothers plan to sell the 7.5 acres of land that was previously used as playing pitches by the South Dublin secondary school to a developer for housing.

At a meeting on Monday night, a proposal to “down zone” the lands from housing to playing fields was rejected by county management after legal advice.

Councillors were told that a mid-term variation to the county development plan was beyond their powers and would have to be initiated by management.

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Councillors who adjourned the meeting later agreed to get a second opinion.

A motion proposed by Fianna Fáil’s Cormac Devlin to create special zoning status for educational facilities throughout Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown was agreed.

Mr Devlin said that should the councillors succeed in their bid to create a mid-term variation of the development plan, it could halt development on some 95 of the 103 schools in the council area which are on, or surrounded, by residentially zoned land.

Councillors also agreed to write to Minister for Education and Skills Richard Bruton and Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe to request the State accept the Clonkeen lands owned by the Christian Brothers in lieu of debts outstanding to the redress scheme.

Mr Devlin said he looked forward “to considering the second legal opinion that has been sought in relation to our powers to trigger a mid-term review of the county development plan”.