THE proposed 63,000 seat stadium for the Phoenix Park race course in Dublin would be a "significant skyline feature visible over much of the city", one of the expert witnesses for the West Dublin Action Group told a Bord Pleanala oral hearing.
Mr Conor Skehan, a landscape architect produced "graphic evidence to support his contention that the developers' environmental impact statement was inadequate, in terms of assessing the impact of the scheme in landscape and visual terms particularly on the Phoenix Park, an area of national and international importance.
He showed the inspector a series of panoramic photomontages of the surrounding area taken from a helicopter simulating the heights of the stadium and hotel planned for the racecourse site, which is located on a ridge between the Tolka and Liffey valleys. These demonstrated that the proposed development would be intrinsically intrusive.
It would change the whole character of the area and people's perception of it, he said. In particular, the Phoenix Park designated for conservation by Unesco would be "adversely affected to a significant degree", with only a single mature tree to screen views of the hotel and stadium from inside the park.
Mr Skehan said the proposed development would also result in the loss of the green belt which currently separates Dublin city from Blanchardstown. The stadium would become a "significant skyline feature visible over much of the city" and for a long distance on the N3 approach road from the north west.
His photomontages showed the entire city would be visible from the roof of the stadium and he said the converse was also true the "spiky top" of the stadium, standing out sharply against the skyline, would also be visible over a wide area including Killiney Hill and even Sandymount Strand.
In the immediate area he said, it was "shocking to think of the degree of visual domination from the top of the stadium looking into the hitherto private back gardens" of nearby houses in Castleknock, some of which would also abut the car parking areas. This would result in "a complete loss of domestic privacy", he said.
Dr Conor Tonra, an environmental scientist, said his surveys and monitoring of traffic in the area showed levels of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, sulphur dioxides and nitrous oxides were already in excess of British guidelines for road design and, in the case of hydrocarbons, 180 times the California standard.
"Any further increase in traffic load to this area as the proposed development would undoubtedly cause would serve to push air pollution figures, already unacceptable, to much higher levels." This would have "a seriously detrimental effect on air quality, leading in turn to justifiable complaints from residents".
Mr Christopher Dilworth, an acoustics consultant, said the scheme and its associated traffic movements would result in noise levels in the area increasing "dramatically". Some of the activities on the site, such as the proposed casino, would operate late at night or into the early morning, disturbing nearby residents.
However, when he attempted to deal with projected noise levels if the 63,000 seat stadium was used for rock concerts, "irrespective of the undertakings given now" by the developers, Mr Philip O'Sullivan SC submitted that this was irrelevant and possibly prejudicial, since his clients had no intention of doing this.
Mr Dan O'Donoghue, a consultant engineer, said the surface water run off from the site would reach a peak of 105,000 gallons a minute and he expressed concern about its impact on the nearby River Tolka. He also estimated the development would generate 64,000 gallons of sewage effluent a day, equivalent to 1,800 houses.
