Landowners, property developers and interested members of the public almost swarmed around coloured zoning maps in South Dublin County Council's Civic Offices yesterday as the new plan went on display.
By mid-morning, the county planning officer, Mr Enda Conway, was already receiving phone calls from landowners complaining that their parcels had not been rezoned for development so they could cash in on the current housing boom in Dublin.
Mr Conway conceded that the plan had been prepared in a vacuum. "All we can do is mark time until somebody comes up with a rational settlement strategy for the whole region," he said. In effect, the planners are making it up as they go along.
Despite four years having elapsed since the break-up of Co Dublin into three administrative counties, consultants have only now been appointed to prepare statutory regional planning guidelines for Dublin and its mid-east hinterland of Meath, Kildare and Wicklow. And since the consultants, Brady Shipman Martin, are not expected to report back in fewer than 18 months, the chances are that all of the region's local authorities will have published their own draft plans - and even adopted them - before the guidelines are finalised.
"We have to plan for the next five years but, beyond that, we have no guidelines," said Cllr Eamonn Walsh, cathaoirleach of South Dublin Co Council. And, with no regional planning framework in place, "we have to work it out as we go along", he added.
"We are now looking at green fields where people hoped they would never see houses built, yet we have to do it. But with the environment now suffering dramatically, we may have to decide at some stage that there's no more room in Dublin," he declared.
It isn't just housing that's the problem. What will be the impact of South Dublin's unilateral decision to lift the current "cap" of 250,000 sq ft on the motorway shopping centre now under construction at Quarryvale, at the junction of the M50 and the N4?
The county manager, Mr Frank Kavanagh, says a planning application to double the size of Quarryvale would be subject to a retail impact study and would also have to take account of the "regional context" as well as ministerial guidelines on major retail schemes. Asked why the cap was being removed, he said he believed it was "too rigid", adding that "more flexibility" was required in the context of the EU single market. But he would be "concerned" if Quarryvale was to "grow like Topsy", to the detriment of other centres.
Mr Kavanagh denied that the council was influenced in any way by the fact that a much larger shopping centre at Quarryvale would bring in substantial returns in commercial rates. The only criterion in his mind was not revenue but "proper planning and development".
"Flexibility" was the key word at yesterday's brief ceremony to mark the publication of the plan. South Dublin officials believe it is also the key to ensuring that the area is able to compete for investment with other parts of Dublin, notably the docklands area.
Regarding the proposed National Freight Distribution Centre at Clonburris, near Clondalkin, the plan takes a cautious approach. Instead of zoning the 200acre site, it retains it under the "open space" zoning while mentioning the scheme as a specific objective.
Mr Tom Doherty, deputy county manager, explained that this formula was intended to ensure that it was developed - as proposed by a consortium headed by Mr Harry Dobson - with a rail link to Dublin Port. It would not end up as "just another industrial estate", he said.
The draft plan is on display for a three-month period at South Dublin's Civic Offices in Tallaght and at the council's libraries in Ballyroan, Whitechurch, Castletymon, Clondalkin and Tallaght. Anyone wishing to make representations must do so by May 9th.