A GOVERNMENT MINISTER has joined a local campaign in north Dublin that’s opposed to the building a housing development adjacent St. Anne’s Park in Raheny.
The site in question encompasses playing pitches that were owned by the Vincentian secondary school St. Paul’s College but were sold earlier this year to New Generation Homes.
The pitches are alongside the main avenue running through St. Anne’s Park and border some other Dublin City Council-owned pitches in the park.
The school-owned pitches have been fenced off in recent years but are still used by the local Clontarf GAA Club.
A planning application has now been submitted that would see the site transformed into 381 housing units of various sizes. The plan also proposes a dedicated all-weather flood-lit sports field for the school and a new sports hall.
The site is located beside Sybill Hill Road and objections to the development are on a number of grounds, including that traffic in the area would be unable to cope.
Other objections are based on the height of the proposed houses and apartments which range from two storeys to five storeys.
The planning application for the development was submitted last month and objections can be lodged before Tuesday of next week.
An I Love St. Anne’s campaign has been launched online to encourage people to lodge their own objections to the plan. The campaign says that, as of yesterday, 35 objections have been lodged with an online petition also seeking signatures.
The campaign argues that that lands are zoned for community use and that this must be protected:
“The construction of a residential development in part of this green belt is wholly inappropriate, conflicts squarely with zoning and would have a ruinous impact on the special character of the park.”
It’s also argued that the proposed access roads to the development would affect the recreational use of the park.
Upon the sale of the lands earlier this year, the Vincentian Order said that the school was “in need of investment” and that €7 million would be made available for the “upgrade of the school and its grounds”.
Submitting an objection to the planning application today, Minister and local TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said that the plan was in breach of zoning regulations and that a “development of this type was excessive”.
The developer has argued that the all-weather pitches and sports hall would be a resource for the community, but the minister said in a letter to planning regulators they “would not be fully accessible and open to the public”.
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