{"id":293798,"date":"2026-02-12T07:42:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T07:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/293798\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T07:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T07:42:07","slug":"dublin-stately-home-owner-fights-council-plan-to-rezone-his-land-for-housing-and-public-use-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/293798\/","title":{"rendered":"Dublin stately home owner fights council plan to rezone his land for housing and public use \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A south Dublin baronet and former honorary Irish consul to Lebanon is resisting plans by D\u00fan Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council<\/a> to rezone land around his 200-year-old stately home for housing and cycle paths.<\/p>\n

The council has targeted greenbelt lands around Woodbrook House and Estate between Shankill and Bray<\/a> as part of its drive to provide significant additional lands for housing. <\/p>\n

The move follows an edict last summer from Minister for Housing James Browne that local authorities must rezone more land to help tackle the housing crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Marc Cochrane, also known as Sir Henry Marc Sursock Cochrane, 4th Baronet of Woodbrook, is opposing the rezoning of the lands on his estate. Cochrane benefited from one of the most lucrative rezoning decisions ever recorded at the height of the boom.<\/p>\n

In 2004, the council rezoned part of the his estate beside Woodbrook Golf Course for housing. Cochrane, whose family was part of the Cantrell & Cochrane (C&C) Group \u2013 famous for producing Club Orange \u2013 sold the lands in 2007 to a company associated with developer Joe O\u2019Reilly for more than \u20ac150 million.<\/p>\n

The lands remained undeveloped when the property crash hit, but the first of several hundred homes have recently been completed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Submissions to the council by planning consultants acting for Cochrane said while the 2007 sale did result in a reduction in the estate, \u201cthe development of those lands were not considered to have an undue negative impact on the setting of the estate, distinct from the current proposed\u201d rezoning.<\/p>\n

Conservation architects representing Cochrane said the council\u2019s proposal to build on the remaining estate would be \u201can act of architectural vandalism\u201d.<\/p>\n

Woodbrook, a neo-Palladian mansion, largely dates from 1835, though the central part of the house dates from the 1700s. The estate lands include several protected structures, including the main house and its gate lodges.<\/p>\n

The council is seeking to rezone the land from greenbelt to part residential and part open space. This is with a view to providing a space suitable for cyclists and pedestrians. <\/p>\n

Planning consultants John Spain Associates said the council\u2019s plans would have \u201ca significant, permanent negative impact on Woodbrook House and Estate including the numerous protected structures and historic features located thereon\u201d. <\/p>\n

It added: \u201cOur client does not support creation of pedestrian and cycle links through his property.\u201d<\/p>\n

Changing the greenbelt designation would \u201cresult in the erosion of the last spatial buffer between Shankill and Bray and the biodiversity contained within\u201d, it said.<\/p>\n

The lands were already subject to compulsory purchase at their western boundary as part of road widening to accommodate the Bray to city centre BusConnects scheme. The planners say this \u201cwill result in permanent, negative and significant impacts\u201d. <\/p>\n

Conservation architects Sheehan & Barry said it \u201ccontravenes all good conservation practice to propose a high-density residential development on these lands\u201d. They add the plan would have a \u201cprofoundly negative impact in terms of landscape and community heritage\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo sever the connection between not only Woodbrook House and its gate lodges and entrance gates, but also the magnificent \u2018borrowed\u2019 views which are integral to its design and setting would be an act of architectural vandalism in our view.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a personal statement accompanying the submissions, Cochrane said the proposed rezoning \u201cwould represent an unnecessary and damaging land-use change, undermining the ecological, heritage and landscape values that define the estate\u201d.<\/p>\n

He urged the council to reverse its plans, saying he had \u201cno intention to develop this land for residential purposes in the foreseeable future\u201d.<\/p>\n

Submissions on the rezoning will be considered by the council\u2019s executive, after which councillors will vote on whether to implement the changes to the development plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A south Dublin baronet and former honorary Irish consul to Lebanon is resisting plans by D\u00fan Laoghaire-Rathdown County…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12842,3662,61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-293798","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-dun-laoghaire-rathdown-county-council","9":"tag-housing-crisis","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}