A proposal to build a 23,000sq m "town centre" in Dunleer, Co Louth, has clashed with a campaign to reopen the disused railway station there.
Dunleer is one of the most popular and controversial commuter towns close to Dublin, and a campaign to have its train station on the Dublin-Belfast line reopened has been building in recent years.
However, those who are lobbying politicians for the trains to stop again there say the plans - which propose development along the approach road to the station - would make the station's reopening "next to impossible".
If permission is granted, the new town centre would see 167 residential units including apartments, retails outlets, fitness centre and a creche. There would be 11 buildings, some of them five storeys over a basement.
The planning application was submitted by Dunleer Co-Ownership, with an address in Dublin. It gives the names of the landowners as a number of private individuals; none is in the name of Iarnród Éireann or CIÉ.
Station Road divides the 2½ hectare site, which is rectangular in shape.
The eastern boundary is an embankment beside fencing that separates it from railway lands.
The planning file includes a letter from CIÉ stating it would recommend a "licence agreement to facilitate development access over the station access roadway".
According to Fergus O'Dowd TD (FG), Iarnród Éireann "assured me the station is on a target list for development and it is absolutely imperative that Iarnród Éireann retain sufficient lands to provide a suitable car park for the station".
Green Party councillor Mark Deary said: "It seems inevitable that development on either side of Station Road will render the reopening of the railway station as next to impossible.
"The proposed development will create such pressure on the Station Road as to isolate the railway station. It beggars belief that in this day and age that a town with a station and rail line to the capital city would plan for its future as though the station doesn't exist."
Former mayor of Drogheda Gerald Nash (Lab) said: "This application should be considered in order to establish whether it is in the best interests of the longer-term sustainable development of the village, which has come under considerable and sometimes controversial development pressures in recent years."
Gerry Crilly, who took part in local objections to some of the rezonings proposed for Dunleer four years ago, said: "The architectural character of the proposed development is more in keeping with 'docklands Dublin' than rural Dunleer.
"As this would also be a largely car-dependent development and would inhibit the reopening of the station, it cannot be considered sustainable at a most fundamental level.
"In the present climate of concern regarding global warming, this goes way beyond a local issue."