Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE CONTENTIOUS SITE near St Anne’s Park in Rahney, Dublin has been blocked from use for housing following a vote by Dublin City Councillors last night.
Councillors yesterday voted to zone the 16.5 acre site on lands to the east of St Paul’s College at Sybil Hill as Z9 open space.
Under Dublin City Council’s definition, the objective of Z9 zoning is to “preserve, provide and improve recreational amenity and open space and green networks”.
This now means that the space has the same status as the rest of St Anne’s Park and housing will not be permitted on the site.
The site beside St Anne’s Park has long been the subject of contention, with a number of housing applications being made in recent years.
Last year, the High Court overturned a planning permission for 657 dwellings on the site.
Last month, one of the country’s largest building firms, the Marlet Group confirmed it is to lodge plans in the coming days with Dublin City Council for 580 apartments and a 100 bed nursing home for a 16.5 acre site on lands to the east of St Paul’s College at Sybil Hill, Raheny, Dublin 5.
Dublin City Council last week refused planning permission for the ambitious apartment plan on the sole grounds concerning the Ligh Bellied Brent Goose which usually migrates here from ‘high Arctic’ Canada for the winter months.
The refusal followed the Council receiving more than 230 objections against the proposal.
The new Z9 city development plan for the site will come into being on 14 December.
With reporting by Gordon Deegan
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Complete NIMBY scenario.
There’s 240 acres of green space / amenity allocated land. It’s massive and never ever rammed or over crowded. It didn’t need 16 acres added to it.
These councillors were very well influenced by locals and only voted in this manner to protect their cushy government paid jobs.
@Paolo Fandango: elected officials are supposed to listen to those who elected them, hence why they are referred to as local representatives. We complain enough when we feel our politicians aren’t listen to us, now you complain that they are listening. Guess they just can’t win with dome people.
@Paolo Fandango: the Brent Goose has rights too. We need to get our priorities in order.
@D. Memery: i can commend the councillors for enacting what their constituents want. As an example, For all the grief the Healy Rae’s get, I commend them for being able to do what their constituents want. They’re masters at it and this is politics after all.
But this case the greater good has been ignored on a massive scale so a site that’s 6.5% the size of its adjoining 240 acre green land could be left alone. You’d swear the whole park was gonna be developed on.
@Paolo Fandango: Actually it wasn’t NIMBY, the land was never zoned for housing and the developer was hoping to force a change of zoning on the back of housing demand. As a country we can’t be making any park or amenity space smaller, it’s bigger it needs to be to assist in reversing climate change. So you are dead wrong.
@Paolo Fandango: the greater good is the climate not the developer looking to profit
@Jason Walsh: your logic seems very flawed. Let’s not build because a developer will make a profit and it’s bad for the environment?
Should we live in tents made from potato peels then?
The area is ‘Within’ Saint Anne’s Park. There are a phletora of reasons why this area should not be built on. I know people who comment on this topic who know nothing about Saint Anne’s. I could write pages on why this area is unsuitable for a building project but reason has prevailed so, thankfully there is no need.
@Claire Quinn: Yes. If people don’t know what they’re talking about they shouldn’t comment. We’ve been fighting this for years and the councillors have listened. LEAVE OUR PARK ALONE.
@Claire Quinn: Agreed. There are so many vacant sites around Dublin that are not part of parklands where building can occur. Covid should have rammed home how important green spaces are and they are also essential for air quality. Modern well designed urban areas in other countries factor in the importance of trees and green spaces in design.
@Claire Quinn: So can you name a few apart from the Brent Geese?
@Claire Quinn: it isn’t in the park nor public land. It is beside it. All well and good stopping a development company and making them lose money on this. They either won’t do it again or just push up the prices of anything else they build. The geese would just move over to the park. All complaints are nonsense and the public pressure has made for a bad decision
@Craic_a_tower: they’d be the first to give out to locals complaining about a development in a housing estate taking away what green spaces are left for kids to pile in more houses with no chance of amenities.
@Claire Quinn: this is a lie. It is not within the park. It a private land bordered off from the park by both trees and walkway/roadway. It’s beside it.
People moan because they can’t find a home to live in because of the housing shortage, then you get this Nimbyism
@Geoff Bateman: Does anyone know where you can get the vote breakdown by party?
@Mickety Dee: it seems this was voted at a special meeting on the draft development plan on Tuesday evening, probably won’t get a breakdown on the DCC website until the minutes are published. The press are normally at these meetings so maybe it will appear in some publication
@Mickety Dee: On the DCC website.
Great. we will reach our target of 20,000 homeless in no time!
This country is broken.
“Pay paradise put up a parking lot…”
@Mister Pink: not sure what Joni would make of you misquoting her lyrics but she might ask you to listen more carefully to the song.
Sensational headline. It should read “Councillors vote to retain similar zoning on land adjacent park”. It was never zoned for housing and the site was purchased on the back of the developer being able to wrangle a change in zoning.
So there’s obviously enough house’s out that way
have your say