Residents living in the vicinity of the proposed redeveloped 50,000-seater Lansdowne Road stadium in Dublin may see the value of their properties increase once it is operational, an expert for the project developers said yesterday.
It was also revealed that while lowering the height of the stadium had been considered, the client ruled it out.
The An Bord Pleanála hearing in Dublin yesterday heard a total of 20 presentations in support of the €350 million development on behalf of the Lansdowne Road Stadium Development Company.
These included a presentation by environmental consultant Seán O'Riordain of ERM Ireland. He said international research on the impact of similar developments on property prices elsewhere showed they can increase once a stadium is operational.
The research included a study conducted by the University of Sheffield on the City of Manchester stadium and the Millennium stadium in Cardiff, which indicated that property prices had moved upwards as a result of the stadium development, he said.
It is understood that this increase may have been by 10 per cent or more and that other US-based research has indicated similar trends.
Ben Vickery of HOK Sport Architects also revealed that having the stadium lowered - for example by between five and seven metres - could have added a year to the construction time. Lowering the stadium would have been "very expensive", and would have necessitated thousands of additional truck movements during the construction phase, leading to greater disruption. He said this was not something the client wanted.
Among the other main points made by the development team were:
The capacity of the proposed "bespoke" stadium had been reduced from 65,000 to 50,000 seats (23 per cent) in order to mitigate the "major concern" of its impact on residents.
A total of 41 trees will be cut down along the Dodder walkway. Twenty-six of these are on IRFU-owned land and all will be replaced by native trees. A biodiversity plan for the walkway will also enhance the area.
Spectator congestion around Lansdowne Road on match days will be lessened significantly by the construction of a Dart underpass.
Noise levels on match days and during other events such as concerts will mostly improve, or remain the same.
12-19 rugby events, eight soccer and three to four concerts are expected to take place each year at the stadium.
The light in a small number of properties will be affected, but these do not rely exclusively on frontage towards the stadium. A specially commissioned report for residents of two houses on Lansdowne Road, also presented yesterday, argued that light levels would be significantly affected by the stadium.