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DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL (DCC) has warmly welcomed the redesignation of Dublin’s Poolbeg glass bottle site as a strategic development zone (SDZ).
The huge site, which measures 34 hectares in size, has been idle for many years after becoming one of the most high-profile victims of the economic crash.
With its new status, there is room on site for 3,000 new homes along with “a wider range of employment opportunities and social infrastructure such as schools”, according to DCC.
The council had asked the government to redesignate the land for development given the critical need for housing in the capital and the fact that the site hadn’t been put to any purpose for some time.
Bankrolled for development in the 2000s to the tune of over €410 million, the site was possibly the most high profile of all to be transferred to post-crash asset-management agency NAMA.
According to Dublin City manager Owen Keegan the redesignation of the site is an opportunity to build on the success of the nearby North Lotts and Grand Canal SDZ which has seen over 85% of its development blocks either approved or at pre-application consultation.
“The Poolbeg West SDZ is a fast-track mechanism which will enable the City Council to provide much needed housing in an extremely attractive area of the City close to many amenities,” Keegan said.
The redesignation of the site “clears the way for a range of opportunities including major residential development” according to Fine Gael’s Coveney.
“With the potential for up to 3,000 badly needed new homes close to employment and services, in addition there will be commercial and employment activities including, office, hotel, leisure and retail facilities – all of which will provide much needed jobs opportunities,” he said.
DCC will now work together with the two major stakeholders in the area, Dublin Port and NAMA, to advance the development of the land.
It is expected that a planning scheme will be in place by the end of the year.
The Green Party has welcomed the new SDZ, saying the move is ‘long overdue’.
“If the Government get this right, it has the potential to rival the great housing projects of the 1930′s,” party leader Eamon Ryan said in a statement.
It’s important that any development at the Glass Bottle Site delivers the right mix of commercial, housing and retail development.
We would like to see the Glass Bottle Site used as a test location for a new cost-rental model of social and affordable housing.
If what they UK is planning to do is legal as they claim then surely they should not fear anyone taking a case against it?
Of course we all suspect that its not legally sound.
@Larry O Reilly: Yes, send all those Ukrainians home!
@Kevin Farrell: no one mentioned Ukrainian only you difference in people fleeing a war or economical refugee looking for a free ride
@Larry O Reilly: Exactly – no one mentioned Ukrainians. I guess the difference is they have white skin, whereas the other people fleeing war and persecution have brown or black skin.
The Raj is still alive in Britain.
How bloody dare do those lawyers check if it’s legal! Outrageous!
Typical Johnson nothing but a bully
The Raj is still alive in Britain.
The Raj is still alive in Britain.
@Don Hogan: heard u first time
@Don Hogan: It’s naff all to do with “the Raj”. Britain has had enough of these illegal migrants. The French appear to encourage their passage across the water. None of them can possibly be genuine refugees, otherwise they would have stayed in the first safe country to the one they have fled from.
There are about 67 million people living on mainland Britain. There is barely 6 million here.
Where is the UK supposed to house all these people? The UK has a housing crisis as does this country. Imagine thousands of migrants landing on the shores of Ireland, week in week out!
@Ally Collyer: So basically you want Mediterranean countries like Greece and Italy to be a buffer between the Middle East/Africa and Britain? You do realise that puts a tremendous strain on said Med nations to have to manage all refugees fleeing whatever disaster/persecution in their home countries. Why shouldn’t the Brits have to do their part, just because of geography? They took more than their fair share from most of the world’s nations when they had an empire, and left them in worse shape because of it.
@Ally Collyer: That’s a terrible way to treat Ukrainian’s fleeing the war. And just because they didn’t stay in the first safe country the arrived in after leaving Ukraine!
@Ally Collyer: For arguments sake, let’s consider them as economic migrants, not refugees. Migrants have a net economic benefit for industrialised economies by boosting the working age population and pay more in taxes than they recieve in benefits (OECD). Housing crises are caused by not building enough housing. I suspect the main reason they don’t want them is that they’re foreign, which I understand, as none of us like change.
@Kevin Farrell: ah, no one took you bait, nobody talking about Ukrainians with the exception of you,shows your leave of intelligence
@Larry O Reilly: Ah yes, exactly, nobody talking about Ukrainians. Because they have white skin. @Ally Collyer stated:
“None of them can possibly be genuine refugees, otherwise they would have stayed in the first safe country to the one they have fled from.”
Well, Ukrainians fleeing the war in their country didn’t stay in the “first safe country to the one they have fled from” did they? So, by @Ally Collyer definition they can’t be genuine refugees… or does that only apply to people with brown or black skin?
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