Madam, - Frank McDonald reported in your edition of October 29th that residents of Shankill, Co Dublin were rallying opposition to the rezoning of 10 acres of land surrounding Clontra House.
The report explained that the county manager, Mr Derek Brady, wants 71 hectares to be rezoned for residential use to meet the housing needs of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council over the time-span of the new development plan for 2004 to 2010. Frank McDonald quotes Cllr Bernie Lowe, who contends that Clontra would not be threatened if councillors acceded to the rezoning of Dun Laoghaire Golf Club.
Cllr Lowe reportedly accused Labour, PD and Fine Gael councillors of "pandering to the middle classes" by opposing the golf club rezoning, which she claims would meet almost half of the housing shortfall.
In fact, however, many councillors dispute the manager's 71-hectare rezoning target. They believe the council already has enough land zoned to meet the housing needs over the life of the 2004-2010 plan. According to the manager's own figures, 297 hectares of residential-zoned land is left over from the 1997-2002 plan. This is enough for a 150 per cent increase in the rate of house building relative to the 1997-2002 period.
Mr Brady says that an additional 19,211 houses will be required over the life of the plan. This is almost six times the requirement indicated by the latest strategic planning guidelines. It implies a 25 per cent growth in the population of the council area, whereas the growth in the "Celtic Tiger" period of 1997-2002 was 1 per cent.
For these reasons many councillors believe the manager's zoning and housing targets are greatly overstated. There is in fact no need to rezone either the golf club or Clontra.
We in Combined Residents to Save Open Space (CRSOS) who oppose the development of the golf club, are very pleased that councillors voted against the rezoning (coincidentally, on the date of Frank McDonald's report) by 14 to 13.
This is a clear sign that councillors are not convinced by Mr Brady's targets.- Yours, etc.,
GENE FEIGHERY, Chairperson, CRSOS, Eglinton Park, Dun Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.