The Dublin Docklands Development Authority's (DDDA) executive board meets today to "sign off" on its draft planning scheme for the extended Custom House Docks area, stretching from Spencer Dock eastwards to the Point Theatre.
As currently cast, however, the DDDA's scheme adopts such a cautious approach that it runs the risk of squandering the prospects of achieving "sustainable development" by failing to capitalise on the area's future accessibility by public transport.
Although it is relatively inaccessible at present, transport plans for the north Docklands area include an extension of the Tallaght light rail line from Connolly Station to the Point, along Mayor Street, as well as a possible Luas line running south via the proposed Macken Street bridge.
Under the Dublin Transportation Office's Platform for Change policy published last September, Spencer Dock would become a major transportation hub, with an underground metro linking it to Pearse Station in Westland Row and ultimately to Heuston Station.
As a result of these projections, it was identified as a possible location for taller buildings in a study last year by London-based architects and urban designers DEGW for Dublin Corporation. The area around Heuston was seen as another potential prospect.
Spencer Dock has already been the subject of a major planning battle between the developer, Treasury Holdings, and the DDDA, residents and An Taisce over US-based architect Kevin Roche's master plan for the area.
Treasury sought to cover the CIE-owned Spencer Dock site with a mega-development of office blocks, apartment buildings, retailing and other facilities with a gross floor area of six million square feet.
Last July An Bord Pleanala approved only the conference centre and refused planning permission for everything else on the grounds of excessive scale, height and bulk, as well as uncertainty over the provision of a new cross-river rail link.
Treasury, which is controlled by Mr Richard Barrett and Mr John Ronan, later commissioned architects Scott Tallon Walker to prepare a revised plan for the Spencer Dock site. And although this has not been made public, it is believed to be almost as dense as the earlier version.
The DDDA has refused to budge, however. The densities it would permit at Spencer Dock are no different from what it has already prescribed for the Grand Canal Docks area, south of the Liffey, even though it is served by just one DART station at Barrow Street.
Mr Terry Durney, the authority's director of planning, has an aversion to tall buildings. His vision of the Docklands is exemplified by the development of the 12-acre extension to the Custom House Docks, where buildings fronting the river are no more than six storeys.
Yet if the standard is three to five storeys on the narrow channel of the Liffey as it weaves through the city, shouldn't the river, in its broad expanse in the Docklands area, be contained by significantly higher buildings?
And if the National Conference Centre (NCC) isn't built, the DDDA's stated fall-back position is to develop the site as an urban park, involving more waste of valuable land. Much better to relocate the NCC to the middle of the site and build a slimmer landmark building on this corner.
At nearly 31 acres (12.5 hectares), the southern section of the Spencer Dock site represents almost 40 per cent of the north Docklands planning scheme area. Given its pivotal location and future role as a public transport hub, it could accommodate a lot more development.
The plan needs to be radically changed to do justice to the State's largest tract of brownfield land.