Over half the total land area of the Howth peninsula has been proposed for protection under a Special Amenity Area Order drafted by Fingal County Council. This lays down severe restrictions on further development in the area.
The draft SAAO, which is to be discussed at a public information meeting in Howth tomorrow evening, covers an area of 546 hectares (1,310 acres) - mainly natural and semi-natural habitats, as well as some low-density housing.
Much of the land - some 319 hectares - is owned by Mr Gaisford St Laurence, of Howth Castle. The next largest landowners, with a holding of 85 hectares, are Mr Richard Barrett and Mr John Ronan, of Treasury Holdings, property developers.
Other major landowners directly affected by the proposed SAAO include Howth Golf Club (48 hectares) and Mr Gerry Gannon, the property developer who has clashed with conservationists over the closure of established rights of way (33 hectares).
In October 1996, when the then Minister for the Environment, Mr Brendan Howlin, directed Fingal County Council to make an SAAO for the coastal part of the Howth peninsula, Treasury Holdings threatened to test its constitutionality in the courts. However, no legal action was taken.
Subsequently, the county council decided to evaluate a more extensive area - including Howth Demesne, the Ben of Howth, Shielmartin and Ireland's Eye - with the aid of the Natural Resources Development Centre at Trinity College.
The scope of the proposed SAAO is much wider than the limited area identified by Mr Howlin. It also includes a plan to designate a "buffer zone", incorporating Howth Castle Demesne, where development would be restricted so as to "enhance" the main protected area.
The council also plans to establish a broad-based area management committee representing the council, as well as local and sectoral interests, such as An Taisce. Its function will be to monitor the local environment, make a management plan and implement it.
It is proposed that the implementation of this management plan would be financed by levies on all new developments in Howth, at the rate of £1,000 per house, £100 for each domestic extension, and £500 per bedroom for hotels (or per 50 square metres for other commercial schemes).
The underlying strategy of the proposed SAAO is to protect the high environmental quality of the designated area by restricting development within it, though the council does recognise the need to encourage tourism-related developments in the remainder of Howth.
Much of the special value of the SAAO area, according to the council, relates to Howth's extensive areas of heathland and coastal scenery, which are accessible to the people of Dublin. The peninsula contains the largest area of lowland heath in the east of Ireland.
These areas are traversed by a well-used network of public footpaths, which are designated to be preserved under the order. In addition, all existing scenic views and prospects from the entire length of public footpaths and roads in the area are to be protected.
Developers will be required to take account of the visual impact of their schemes on views from these paths and roads - for example, by erecting flagpoles on a site corresponding to the height of a proposed structure in order to assist in assessing its visual impact.
The general aim of the proposed SAAO is to provide the public and potential developers with "clear guidelines" for the future development of Howth, which has been under serious pressure especially since it was transferred to the Fingal area more than 10 years ago.
Over the past 50 years, as the council's report says, Howth has been transformed from a rural area to a suburban extension of Dublin city. Its farmland, heath, woodland and other semi-natural areas have shrunk from over 70 per cent of the total land area to just 40 per cent.
In the same period, the built-up area on the peninsula increased from 14 per cent to 30 per cent of the total and has now become the dominant category of land cover. According to the 1996 census, there are 2,751 households in Howth and a population of just over 9,000.
Giving an indication of the scale of development pressures, the council says that there were 364 planning applications on the peninsula between 1991 and 1997, the majority for residential development. Permission was granted for 158 new houses and refused for 74.
However, despite increasing suburbanisation, the primary attraction of Howth is its unspoilt natural environment, according to the report. It says the old Great Northern Railways slogan, "The Hill of Howth for Health and Heather", remains largely true today.
It was the GNR which originally developed the cliff path, which is still "one of the finest short coastal walks in the country", as the council says. As a result, the peninsula continues to play an important role as a place of recreation for the people of Dublin.
Semi-wilderness areas of heath, scrub and woodland still account for a third of the land cover of the peninsula. Howth Head and Ireland's Eye are also designated as component parts of the proposed NATURA 2000 network of habitats of European importance.
A public information meeting on the proposed Howth Special Amenity Area Order will be held at 8 p.m. tomorrow in the Baily Court Hotel. Copies of the order will also be on view at Howth Library, the Old Courthouse and Fingal County Council's planning department.