Councillors in Louth ignored the advice of their senior planner yesterday and voted to remove the phasing of development of over 600 hectares of largely undeveloped lands to the west and south of Dundalk.
The lands are included in the draft Dundalk southwest local area plan and provide for a population of up to 27,000 over the next 20 years.
The plan affects around 30 landowners and most of the area is green fields.
Senior planner Gerry Duffy said the draft plan proposed that the phasing be front-loaded to provide for the infrastructure needed for the entire development.
The plan includes housing, schools and three civic or community centres, a campus-style business park and a park-and-ride facility.
The lands are bordered by the M1 motorway to the west, the old Dublin to Belfast road to the east, the southern link road to the south and the Carrickmacross road to the north.
The proposal to remove the phasing was made by Cllr Jim D'Arcy (FG) at a meeting of Louth County Council yesterday. Councillors debated submissions received on the draft plan.
Cllr D'Arcy made the proposal after speaking on a submission on behalf of landowner Paddy McParland who owns two parcels of land totalling 25 hectares.
He wanted the phasing amended, saying it would allow for the early development of one of the civil and community centres, "and the proposed adjacent school by way of the creation of sufficient critical mass".
Cllr D'Arcy said phasing "is not required and could inhibit development".
"The scale of infrastructure required will take three big developers to get this off the ground," he added.
He was supported by Cllr Mary Grehan (Ind) who said developers have been told they could be waiting 10 years before work could begin.
The chairman of Dundalk Town Council, Martin Bellew (Ind), said: "I believe there are three to four developers waiting to come in and provide the roads, sewerage and other infrastructure and I believe that to phase it over 10 to 20 years is wrong."
However, Mr Duffy warned them that phasing is needed "to place order on development; there is no way any degree of control can be exercised without robust phasing in place".
Mr Duffy said phasing would see 50 per cent of the plan being achieved which would be "a major goal".
The draft plan must be adopted by Dundalk Town Council before it can come into force.