The number of homes planned for a new suburb at the former Dublin Industrial Estate opposite Glasnevin Cemetery has been revised upwards by 40 per cent to a potential 8,500.
Dublin City Council last April published the Ballyboggan draft master plan for the development of 6,000 homes within a 77-hectare zone, the largest industrial land bank to be regenerated since the Dublin docklands.
However, the plans were criticised for lacking ambition in the midst of a housing crisis, with landowners and State agencies seeking the highest possible densities to ensure the maximum number of apartments are built.
The area, just 3km from the city centre, is surrounded by the established suburbs of Glasnevin to the east, Cabra to the south, Finglas to the north and the expanding neighbourhood of Pelletstown to the west.
More than 140 submissions were made to the council on the draft master plan, most of which called for increased housing density and height on the lands. Many of these were from existing industrial landowners, though Irish Rail and the National Transport Authority (NTA), as well as several members of the public, called for maximum densities to be pursued on the site.
Irish Rail chief executive Jim Meade said rail services were due to “increase substantially” through Broombridge, a Luas and train station at the zone’s west end, making it “clearly an ideal location” for additional population growth.
“Considerable increases in passenger capacity due to Dart+ West means that Broombridge station could facilitate the maximum level of density provided for under current planning guidelines,” he said. “Dublin City Council should consider whether the proposed densities are sufficient to realise the full benefits of transport-orientated development and optimise respective investments.”
In its submission, the NTA said Ballyboggan was “an appropriate location for intensive residential and commercial redevelopment” due to its “exceptional level of transport accessibility”.
Landowners, including several high-profile developers such as Bartra, the Flynn Group and Blacklion Real Estate Fund, called for increased heights and densities. Bartra suggested “6,000 units is insufficient” and said increased densities could yield “9,933-12,416 units”.
The council defended its plans and said there appeared to be “confusion” about proposed densities. While the master plan covered 77 hectares, just 45.5 hectares were industrial lands, designated for rezoning, for up to 7,000 homes.
This “fully complies” with national and city density policies of 200 to 250 units per hectare, the council said. In addition, there were sites already zoned for housing that could yield another 1,500 homes.
“Therefore, the overall lands could support 8,500 homes,” it said. “Clarifying text will be provided in the master plan to address this matter.”
The council said it acknowledged the plan’s height strategy “caused confusion and was incorrectly perceived to be restricting heights”. It said it would “simplify the height strategy, by providing fewer and broader height ranges, with refined flexibility”.
Several submissions expressed “strong views” about the name of the project the council said. Ballyboggan was a “working title” derived from the historic townland it said.
In response to “interest received” it proposed a new name “Broombridge-Hamilton” to acknowledge the significance of physicist and mathematician Sir William Rowan Hamilton, who first wrote the formula for “quaternions”, an extension of complex numbers, in 1843 at Broombridge.
Proposals to rezone the lands are expected to be available for public consultation in the autumn, after which councillors will vote on the revised master plan, the renaming and the rezoning. Landowners will then be in a position to submit development proposals.
The council acknowledged some businesses did not wish to leave the area and said it “supports all businesses that wish to continue their operations on site or within the wider estate lands”.