Vote on Greystones rezoning plan

Members of Wicklow County Council will today decide on plans to reduce an area of architectural conservation around the Burnaby in Greystones and rezone existing housing to the south of the town to allow for higher-density development.

The move mirrors proposals from Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council to redraw conservation boundaries in Foxrock village, which would create a smaller area of architectural conservation around the core Edwardian housing stock but allow for higher-density development in other areas, possibly including Foxrock golf club. It is understood that Greystones golf club, which borders the Burnaby architectural conservation area, has also been the subject of interest from property developers.

An existing low-density housing development immediately to the south of Greystones town park, and similar low-density housing south of Kinlen Road near Charlesland, would be affected by the changes. The zonings put forward by the county management could provide for the houses to be replaced by apartment blocks.

A spokeswoman for Wicklow County Council told The Irish Times that the first change was to be to a residential zoning in the "new Burnaby" - the area to the south of Kinlen Road and including Burnaby Park, bounded by Manor Avenue and Mill Road.

She said that the proposal would allow for a degree of flexibility in considering possible future infill residential development, as opposed to the existing zoning, which restricted residential development to l0 houses to the hectare. The second change would affect the residential zoning south of the town park, bounded by Burnaby Road and South Place to the west and Mill Road to the east. These houses would be taken out of the conservation area.

The change would "provide a degree of flexibility in considering possible future infill residential development", as opposed to the existing development, which was seen as "restrictive".

At today's meeting, council members will be asked by the management to adopt an amendment to the December 2006 Greystones and Delgany local area plan to give effect to the changes. The council has said that the impetus for the change came from submissions made during the drafting of the local area plan.