The chief executive of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council is asking councillors to support the redesignation of south Dublin golf facilities for future housing despite strident opposition from locals and the owner of the lands.
Councillors will next week vote on amendments to the county development plan to increase the amount of land available for housing. It follows an edict last summer from Minister for Housing James Browne that local authorities must rezone significant additional land to help tackle the housing crisis.
Lands identified for rezoning are primarily in the growth areas of Sandyford and between Shankill and Bray.
However, the council also identified “long-term strategic and sustainable settlement sites” that it does not plan to rezone immediately, but “may deliver housing” in the future. These are currently greenbelt, agricultural or amenity lands in the south of the county close to the Dublin mountains in areas such as Rathmichael, Carrickmines, Kilternan and Stepaside.
Lands at the Stepaside Golf Centre have been included in this category. More than 700 submissions were made to the council on all changes to the development plan, but some 60 per cent were objections to potential future housing at the Stepaside golf facilities.
Some locals branded the proposals as “shameful” and an “outrage”, with others saying they show an “abhorrent disregard” for local amenities and would “destroy the very fabric of the area”.
Rosa Roe, owner of Stepaside Golf Centre, a 40-bay driving range and 18-hole par-three course, is urging councillors not to vote for the redesignation of her lands.
“We are just asking for them not to change it,” she said. “My family and I have been running this golf amenity for almost 30 years and I have no intention of giving up.”
Council chief executive Frank Curran’s report on the public consultation notes “the many issues raised” in relation to the Stepaside golf facilities, but says the lands are “not being put forward for rezoning as part of the proposed variation” to the development plan.
“While the lands are identified as long-term strategic sites this does not confer any future zoning status,” he said.
Curran will ask councillors to go ahead with the change next week.
Roe said she understood the lands would not be earmarked for rezoning but said “it’s a step towards it” and that her land would come under increasing pressure.
“If the councillors vote for this change from green belt [to long-term strategic sites] I would be worried rezoning is going to happen, and happen fairly quickly,” she said. “I would just ask that they come and look at what the course is like and see the rural area it’s in, so they know what they’re voting for.”
In addition to the submissions, a petition organised by Roe and her family, supported by more than 1,100 customers of the golf facility, has been sent to the council calling for it to drop the proposal.
Submissions on the development plan, previously reported by The Irish Times, indicated vehement local opposition to the redesignation of the golf facilities.
“It is an outrage that these would even be considered,” one resident said. “How dare you try and destroy the very fabric of the area and what makes the area unique. This is in complete contradiction to the wishes of the local people.
“Stepaside used to be referred to as ‘the countryside of Dublin’. It is now becoming a concrete jungle thanks to the lack of thoughtful planning by this council.”
Stepaside is “overcrowded”, one couple said. “The infrastructure is creaking and the countryside has been ruined. Enough building in this area. The people in the area need to have amenities and green space. No more houses, apartments, flats.” It was, they said, “absolutely criminal that our amenities are a target for rezoning”.
One man said that, unless the proposal was dropped, he would not vote for any of the current councillors. “I’ll instruct my wife and kids not to also.
“How dare you try to turn this area into nothing but housing estates against the will of local people.”