Church to sell land for new road into Dundrum centre

Negotiations are under way for the sale of land to the rear of Holy Cross Church in Dundrum which would facilitate the development of a new thoroughfare to link the Dundrum Town Centre with the old shopping centre in the village.

Details of the proposals to sell one tenth of an hectare to a development company were provided to about 160 parishioners at a meeting on Saturday.

The meeting was told that the sale of the land to a group involving Castlethorn Construction, the company which developed the Dundrum Town Centre, could generate up to €3 million for the parish.

The plan would see the development of a new thoroughfare which would effectively run parallel to the existing Dundrum main street.

The new development would comprise retail and commercial outlets as well as several public spaces.

Underneath there would be a number of levels of car parking.

The meeting heard that the parish was in negotiations to secure car parking for parishioners attending services in the church as well as for the development of a new parish office.

Parishioners could also use a proposed lift to the car park, to gain access to parish meeting rooms beneath the church.

There have been rumours for some time that developers might actually seek to buy and re-locate the church itself, but parishioners have been told that this is not the case.

The parish priest at Holy Cross parish, Fr Donal O'Doherty said that the reaction to the information meeting had been generally positive. He said that a number of additional suggestions had been put forward and that these would be considered.

Fr O'Doherty said the issue of the proposed sale of the land would now be examined by the parish finance committee and by the parish pastoral council.

While the parish is the beneficial owner of the land, it is legally owned by a trust established by the Dublin Archdiocese.

All proceeds from the proposed sale of the land would go to the parish.