Draft proposals for a new town in the Irishtown/Poolbeg area in Dublin, to include housing, offices and amenity areas, are being opposed by local residents.
The plans for the renovation of the area of the South Bank/Poolbeg Peninsula in Ringsend were put on public display by Dublin City Council yesterday and submissions are being requested.
The draft plan for the area, which is close to Dublin Bay, includes residential and office units in five to seven-storey buildings, public parks and coastal amenities. The project would take 10 years to complete with an estimated value of €1.5 billion. The cost of building could be about €300 million.
Dublin City Council planner Mr Dick Gleeson said the public display period will last until March 4th.
"We hope that there will be a constructive period of consultation, and hope that we can then take in amendments," he said.
He said the amenity areas were an important part of the proposed plan, and they would be taking into consideration the marine and coastal characteristics of the area. There were basically three zones. Zone one was the Ringsend and Sean Moore Park area, which would have approximately 3,050 housing units and 104,600 square metres of office space and an ecology park. This area incorporated the Zoe Developments and former Irish Glass Bottle Co sites, he said.
Zone two would be for utilities and companies such as the ESB or a waste treatment plant, and zone three would be a cultural area with a park out in the more remote area near the Poolbeg chimneys which would be retained. "The beach area will be retained with the historic South Bull Wall and there are some significant opportunities for other waterside amenities," Mr Gleeson said.
The construction would be phased depending on other land users such as Dublin Port, he said.
However, residents of the area will be making submissions opposing the main proposals in the draft plan.
The chairman of the Ringsend and Irishtown Environmental Group, Mr Damien Cassidy, claimed the plan would obliterate the beach known as Shelly Banks and the Great South Wall.
The wall, which was a walkway, was a historical monument and had views of Dublin Bay, he said.
"The plan is for high-rise buildings but the need in this area is for ordinary housing," he said.
It would be better to turn the Irish Glass Bottle site into a recycling centre which would also create employment. A housing estate of reasonable size and ordinary height could be built, he said.
"It is frustrating that Dublin City Council have been planning this and we've known nothing about it. The first we knew of it was when it went on public display," he added.
The leader of the Labour Party in Dublin City Council, Cllr Kevin Humphreys, said the project was very much at the draft stage and councillors only saw it last Friday. "We will have to study it in detail and then consider our reaction."
The draft plan was prepared by DEGW international consultants with Camlin Lonsdale landscape architects on behalf of Dublin City Council.