EMMET M. STAGG TD,
Sir, - Frank McDonald reports (The Irish Times, May 6th) that the application by Dewdrop Properties Ltd to build flats and houses on green space attached to an existing housing estate in Leopardstown Oaks is "believed to be the first of its kind". In fact, there have been a number of such applications in Co Kildare and one has been successfully appealed to An Bord Pleanála.
This situation arises directly from the Government's endorsement of the Bacon Report, which recommended higher density for residential housing. In Kildare the normal maximum density was eight houses per acre, but Bacon recommended - and the Government accepted - that it should go as high as 24 to the acre. If my memory serves me correctly the report was welcomed by Frank McDonald.
Well, now the chickens are coming home to roost and a rash of applications are being made by speculative builders on the amenity spaces attached to existing housing estates.
In one such case in Celbridge, Co Kildare, a builder has been granted permission to build houses across a "vista" to the River Liffey and in Leixlip the community are fighting against a proposal to build an eight-storey car park and apartment block on an elevated site in the middle of Leixlip village. Its prominence would dwarf the main landmark in the village - Leixlip Castle, home of Desmond Guinness.
The lands in question are designated open space for Riverdale Estate and are now zoned for amenity use. Amazingly, the local FF county councillor, Paul Kelly, has strongly supported this application and has attempted to have the zoning of the area changed from amenity to town centre, to facilitate the proposal by the developer, Mr Bernie Cooke. The planning decision by Kildare County Council is due on May 10th following several deferrals. It will inevitably be appealed to An Bord Pleanála.
Preventing this type of undesirable intensification is greatly hampered in Kildare by the failure of Kildare County Council to take the estates and their open spaces into public ownership. The section dealing with these matters in Co Kildare has no staff since March 2001, despite repeated requests by this writer and others and in the face of the rash of applications Frank McDonald referred to.
Councillors in Dun Laoghaire/ Rathdown and elsewhere, however, would make it much more difficult for developers to "re-visit" completed housing estates if the open spaces are re-zoned as amenity areas by varying their County Development Plans. Under the new Planning Act, An Bord Pleanála must have regard to the terms of the county plan.
Councillors in Kildare are actively doing so. - Yours, etc.,
EMMET M. STAGG TD,
Straffan,
Co Kildare.