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LOCAL RESIDENTS HAVE have expressed their frustration at what they call serious delays in the development of 640 homes on public land in north Dublin.
Campaign group Unite Behind the Locals said in December that they were staring into their fourth Christmas in a row in which land earmarked for development remained vacant.
The land in question is at the Oscar Traynor Road between Santry and Coolock and is a 17 hectare Dublin City Council owned site.
It has been earmarked for development for four years and will be a mix of regular, social and affordable housing.
One of the commitments laid out in Rebuilding Ireland – the government’s housing plan – is that publicly-owned be developed with mixed-use housing.
As part of this, a number of sites were identified for development, the Oscar Traynor Road site among them (other sites include O’Devaney Garden and St Michael’s Estate).
In May 2017, then-Housing Minister Simon Coveney said in response to a Parliamentary Question that he estimated that construction on the site could begin in the second half of this year.
However, as of the end of last year no developer had been found for the land and construction was yet to begin.
Issues
Spokesperson for Unite Behind the Locals – which is made up of different residents’ groups – Brendan Dalton said locals were “fed up and very concerned” about the lack of progress.
“We did everything we could to try help make this happen, but we are still waiting for something, anything to bring this forward,” he said.
Plans to build homes on this site are moving at a snail’s pace and no one knows why.
Dalton said that of residents took part in a recent rally to show solidarity with people waiting for the homes that have yet to be built.
A spokesperson for Dublin City Council said that the project was “not stalled”.
They said that it was always intended that the process of procuring a developer would be in the order of O’Devaney Gardens, then the Oscar Traynor Road and then St Michael’s Estate.
The spokesperson described that procurement process as “complex and onerous” but said they were satisfied that good progress had been made and that the first stage of the Oscar Traynor Road process had been completed (the shortlisting of the tenders).
“It is anticipated that a successful Developer will be selected for the Oscar Traynor Road project in the early months of 2019 which will be followed by a Planning Application to Bord Pleanála with full consultation with the local Project Consultative Forum,” they said.
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Oh this will be some area
@Krystian Brzezowski: must be better than where your from otherwise you wouldn’t be here commenting!
@Krystian Brzezowski: Also, mixed housing is a failed idea.
@Sisi R: there’s mixed housing around most of the country. What are you on about
@Diddles Daffy: She’s right it doesn’t work, you can’t have people who refuse to work & pay for nothing while the rest are paying for everything.
@Regina Farrell: I live in a house that I own, right next to a local authority one . Tis grand .
@Diddles Daffy: mixed housing won’t work. People’s wont spend 300k on a house when their neighbour gets the same one from KA for a pittance.
@Regina Farrell: Why stigmatise those with low incomes needing social housing which includes elderly,carers&disabled plus many people in social housing work?Re:’dole’ ieJobseekers allowance:there are tens of thousands on job activation schemes&Jobseekers Benefit is paid to those who had worked but lost their jobs.
Reasons behind mixed development of housing includes trying to tackle stigmatisation of those on low incomes needing social housing.
You’ve said before “they want to live near mammy”( but applicants for social housing must apply in their Council area only!),& yet again criticize if they live in mixed developments,why begrudge people/families on low incomes needing social housing?
@Regina Farrell: So you saying that everybody who is not working refuses to work.
That it is just because they dont want to. That it so easy to live without a job.
I dont work, I am not allowed, I can tell you now I would love to but I cant.
So learn about the truth before stating such damn stupid things
@zillas: cad é an gaeilge ar Zillas
@Dietrich Död: nice to be welcomed home by your neighbour in their pajamas
You have groups for more housing, local housing, against local housing, more houses but not in my area, not enough houses in my area, etc etc. people have a lot of time on their hands
Poor infrastructure already heavy traffic along that route and lack of amenities sure what could go wrong with that .
Do we want Dublin just of bricks and mortar or loads of green spaces as well . I guess most will say we need to have green spaces but they are all been gobbled up by houses as we refuse to go high instead of creating low rose sprawl.
@JesusMoreBullshit: High rise quality apartments would be ideal for this site with strong public transport links. Currently the bus service in the area is quite poor.
Any car parking spaces should be chargeable to the occupants of the home so as to encourage walking, cycling and public transport use.
@JesusMoreBullshit: This site is full of rubbish buried beneath long grass and a hive for antisocial activity. It’s not a designated or managed green space. Your comment on lack of infrastructure beggars belief. There’s a health centre, major hospital, 2 shopping centres, Civic centre and a motorway network either just beside or within a short distance !
@Dotty Dunleary: charging for parking for a property you own ? Are you pulling the salty water completely? Bearing in mind it’s a condition of planning to provide parking you’re out to lunch on that one.
@Dotty Dunleary: ya that’s a great idea cuz the ballymun flats were so good they pulled all that chit down, doesn’t matter how nice the building is , if you fill it full of free loading useless kants it’s going to be a kip
@John Moylan: Read what I say, quality apartments with limited parking spaces for rent means also that more homes can be built without needing to devote space to parking motor vehicles.
It’s a 10 mins walk to schools, hospitals and shopping centres, it’s 30 mins to city centre by bus or bicycle.
If you need a van for work then pay to park it.
@Karllye kripton: Ballymun flats failed due to lack of basic facilities in the area, ghettoisation, lack of jobs and failures of government policies.
Is the delay in securing a developer related to the recent reports that developers are reluctant to build started type private home due to a perception that banks will not approve mortgages for the target demographic?
This then makes the social housing aspects of the project financially non-viable.
@Vocal Outrage: The government needs to step in and build the homes then its a very simple concept, this whole crises has been created between the government and developers/builders to make as much profit as possible at the cost of who is buying/renting, its no accident its totally intentional, the model they are want is the London one, massive rents and house prices by keeping supply very tight.
@Peter Hughes: agree 100% with you.
@Peter Hughes: but if the govt were to build all the houses required, in other words no private developer, how would they finance it, which budget should they tap into, education, health, Gardai? There is a limited pot to govt funding available, unless taxes are increased. A mix of private and public funding is required
@Peter Hughes: nonsense. The reason they haven’t found a developer to take it on is there’s no money in it frim a commercial perspective. People have their head in the clouds as regards cost of building these days. Having common building standards with a common for a 3-bed council house and a 5- bed detached in, day, Dalkey means costs are skewed.
@John Moylan: You mean not enough money, restricting the amount of homes built will drive up prices, which is true. Its the governments job to address this and one simple way would be to heavily tax zoned land that is being sat on, this would drive down the price of the land over night. Also again governments should build like they done in the past when we were a third world country.
@Peter Hughes:
When we were a third world country and no one had any money we didn’t begrudge a neighbor getting a council house because they figured their turn would come.
It’s the same the world over once people get some money they get greedy for more and don’t want to pay the taxes necessary to fund council housing.
With population rising year on year, demand for housing will keep on rising and rising and the whole country will be paved over, a concrete jungle if they do not build up.
@GO GREEN:
Good, I hate cutting the lawn anyway
It is unlikely that they will get planning permission within three years & only then will further obsticals to the construction of homes become apparent. The system in Ireland does on allow houses to be built.
Why aren’t all of the houses Corpo houses,why are any of them being sold.
Is there an investigative journalist out there to find out why it is taking so long to bring this site to development?
Someone needs to turn over the stones in the DCC anthill to find out why the project is so “complex & onerous”. Surely they have a blueprint for such projects at this stage, given that so many earlier projects have been built over many generations.
It would be very instructive to burrow into the causes of the long delay, before we are asked to vote In a new council, or for the touted executive mayor notion.
This is one of the public site you would hope will benefit from the LDA. We need to get away from local authorities who do not have the skills or expertise to deliver. I cringe every time I hear comments such as ‘local authorities should be developing again’ etc. Their standard reply will be to blame procurement.
It is part of the wider complete mess we have made of social provision, housing included. AHBs are the future, but they are not big enough themselves but neither do we have the numbers of them to deliver to scale. All these was fairly obvious 6/7 years ago but it wasn’t a priority then.
We will have to wait on the LDA as nothing thy do will see the light of day until at least 2021, although their social and affordable figures are low. A problem overall that will take 15 years at least.
The alternative would be giving public grant to private operators to deliver but that would bring out the detractors who decry the private sector delivering public provision. Let me ask the question – how do we deliver to scale, fairly quickly?
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