A decision by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to rezone lands other than those recommended by the county manager for its county development plan would be at "serious risk" of being overturned in the courts, council legal advisers have warned, writes Joe Humphreys.
In a legal opinion, which boosts the case for rezoning certain controversial lands, including those belonging to Dún Laoghaire and Stepaside golf clubs, the lawyers found no justification for extending next Tuesday's deadline for the adoption of the County Development Plan.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, has directed the local authority to zone a further 40 hectares of land so that it complies with the council's housing strategy.
The lawyers, Mr Conleth Bradley and Michael M. Collins SC, of the council's legal services department, said the council could not circumvent this directive "by, for example, retrospectively amending the said housing strategy", as had been suggested by some councillors.
"It cannot in our view be regarded as compliance with that strategy to change that strategy and then argue that compliance with an altered strategy is the same thing as compliance with the strategy the subject of the Minister's direction," they said.
The council was obliged to ensure sufficient and suitable land was zoned for residential use, "to meet the requirements of its housing strategy as referred to in the Minister's direction."
The county manager has identified seven parcels of land which could make up the zoning shortfall, comprising Dún Laoghaire Golf Club (23 hectares), Irish Glass Bottle Company lands at Goatstown (3 hectares), Stepaside Golf Club (22 hectares), a council site in Stepaside (3 hectares), Allies River Road, Shankill (4 hectares), Contra, Quinns Road, Shankill (5 hectares) and a council site at Ballinclea Heights (1.24 hectares).
Under a draft plan, two hectares of land at the Airfield farm in Dundrum have been rezoned residential. However, there is cross-party support for the zoning to be changed to open space.
The lawyers said: "In the absence of a proper analysis from inter alia a planning perspective of any suggested alternative lands having regard to the criterion of suitability for residential use, there is clearly a serious risk that any decision of the elected members to chose lands other than those recommended by the manager would be struck down by a court on the grounds of irrationality."
They were not aware of any other lands which had been put forward by the elected members or anybody else as "suitable land" within the meaning of the relevant legislation.
If the councillors cannot agree on a plan by Tuesday, the manager will adopt one on their behalf.