An oral hearing into controversial plans to build a new town at Adamstown near Lucan, Co Dublin, opens today.
It is planned Adamstown would become home to about 20,000 - a population bigger than many towns in the Greater Dublin Area.
The plan has been appealed to An Bord Pleanála, which has appointed an independent inspector to hold the oral hearing. The hearing opens today at the Gresham Hotel in Dublin and is expected to last up to eight days.
Up to 10,000 housing units would be constructed on the 500-acre site at Adamstown under a draft development scheme drawn up by planners.
South Dublin County Council has given the green light to the proposals despite strong objections from some residents' groups in the Lucan area. Local people claim the new town will create traffic congestion and further stretch resources already under pressure from Lucan's own fast growth rate.
Planners at South Dublin County Council have defended the planned new town, claiming it is a "sustainable urban expansion".
They say the Adamstown scheme has been designed to ensure that infrastructure, services, facilities and amenities will be provided in tandem with development.
Adamstown will not be a "high-rise" development but will involved what planners say is a "modest" increase in density compared to existing suburbs.
Those behind the scheme also argue that although Adamstown could accommodate more than 20,000 people, it will take 15 years or more before such a population is reached because it will be built in phases.