A proposed £1.2 billion high-rise commercial and residential development on Dublin's docklands would not be a fortress or a walled-in town, a planning appeal hearing was told yesterday.
Mr Tom Phillips said that, unlike the nearby Irish Financial Services Centre, the 51-acre Spencer Dock scheme would not have security guards at its entry points.
Mr Phillips, the developer's planning consultant, was responding to a question from a Bord Pleanala inspector at its oral hearing into Dublin Corporation's decision to grant partial planning permission for the scheme.
He said it would have shops and cafes and would be open to the public. "It will be part of the city. It's not a fortress or a walled-in town," he said.
Mr Phillips, from Frank Ben son & Partners, showed models and aerial photographs of the site between the IFSC and The Point which, he said, was the "most comprehensive urban development" in the history of the State.
He said it involved "several man-years" of design work by the American firm Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo Associates, whose senior partner is the award-winning Irish emigre architect, Mr Kevin Roche.
Mr Phillips outlined the details of the scheme, which includes a 2,000-seat national conference and exhibition centre, 11 residential buildings, 21 retail units, nine office buildings, two hotels and parking for 6,805 cars and 40 buses.
Open space was an important part of the scheme and included a linear park along the Royal Canal and a large open square, he said.
The developers, a consortium of Spencer Dock International Conference Centre Ltd, Spencer Dock Development Company Ltd and CIE, are one of eight parties appealing the corporation's decision to grant partial planning permission for the scheme last August.
The others are An Taisce, the Irish Georgian Society, the East Wall Residents' Association, Docklands Communities Against High Rise, the financier, Mr Dermot Desmond, the IFSC South Block and city councillors Mr Ciaran Cuffe (Green Party) and Mr Gerry Breen (Fine Gael).
The corporation granted full planning permission for the conference centre and one office block, but only outline planning permission for the rest of the site, which it also scaled back from six million to a maximum of 4.6 million sq ft. This means the developer would have to apply for planning permission for each subsequent phase of the scheme over a 10-year period. The corporation also attached 54 conditions to its grant of planning permission.
The corporation's chief planning officer, Mr Pat McDonnell, said the area of the proposed development was in transition. "This is a new city emerging to the east. There is a lot of potential here for prosperity and redevelopment."
The development would be a "profound presence" and from some angles would block the views of the Dublin mountains, he said.
Mr Kevin O'Byrne, an East Wall resident and former city alderman for the area, said Dublin's skyline was part of its heritage and was referred to in the works of Brendan Behan and Sean O'Casey, who lived in East Wall.
Mr McDonnell said a high building study on Dublin would be presented to corporation officials in early June, and it was hoped to bring it to the city council by mid-July.
Replying to questions, Mr McDonnell said there was "no question" of local communities not staying in the area, despite the envisaged changes to the area around them.