{"id":389526,"date":"2026-04-09T08:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T08:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/389526\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T08:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T08:38:07","slug":"plan-to-rezone-land-at-south-dublin-stately-home-for-housing-scrapped-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/389526\/","title":{"rendered":"Plan to rezone land at south Dublin stately home for housing scrapped \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plans to rezone land at Woodbrook House, a 200-year-old stately home in south Dublin, for housing are set to be dropped following the intervention of its owner and the Department of Housing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

D\u00fan Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council planned to rezone the greenbelt lands between Shankill and Bray to fulfil a direction from Minister for Housing James Browne <\/a>to provide significant additional lands for development.<\/p>\n

However, Marc Cochrane, also known as Sir Henry Marc Sursock Cochrane, fourth baronet of Woodbrook and former honorary Irish consul to Lebanon, opposed the move.<\/p>\n

Cochrane, whose family was part of the Cantrell & Cochrane Group \u2013 famous for producing Club Orange \u2013 benefited at the height of the property boom from one of the most lucrative rezoning decisions ever recorded.<\/p>\n

In 2004, the council rezoned part of his estate, beside Woodbrook Golf Course, for housing. Cochrane sold the lands in 2007 to a company associated with developer Joe O\u2019Reilly for more than \u20ac150 million. They remained undeveloped when the property crash hit, but the first of several hundred homes has recently been completed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Submissions to the council by planning consultants John Spain Associates, acting for Cochrane, said that although the 2007 sale resulted in a reduction in Woodbrook Estate, the development was \u201cnot considered to have an undue negative impact on the setting of the estate, distinct from the current proposed\u201d rezoning.<\/p>\n

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

Conservation architects Sheehan & Barry, representing Cochrane, said: \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

In its submission, the Department of Housing said it had a \u201cnumber of concerns in respect of this rezoning proposal\u201d. Woodbrook House was, it said, a \u201cvery significant Palladian country house with planned views and vistas from the front elevation of the property encompassing the demesne parkland which is now proposed for residential development\u201d.<\/p>\n

This development <\/a>\u201cwould result in loss of the parkland itself, sever the relationship between the house and parkland and adversely impact on the planned vista arrangement\u201d. <\/p>\n

Mitigations proposed by the council as part of the rezoning were \u201cwholly inadequate to the challenge of mitigating a profound and permanent impact\u201d, it said.<\/p>\n

Council chief executive Frank Curran, in his report to councillors in advance of a vote on the proposed changes next week, recommended scrapping the rezoning. The lands are \u201creadily serviced and are located in close proximity to the new Woodbrook Dart station\u201d and many areas within the curtilage of protected structures have previously been \u201csuccessfully and sensitively developed,\u201d noted his report on the submissions. <\/p>\n

However, he acknowledged \u201ca number of submissions have been received which raise serious concerns\u201d regarding the rezoning. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs the landowner has indicated that they do not wish to develop the lands in the foreseeable future, it is recommended that alternative lands should also be zoned that can be developed to meet the new housing growth requirements in the short term.\u201d <\/p>\n

Separately, the owner of a golf facility in Stepaside <\/a>had asked for her lands to be excluded from future housing plans. <\/p>\n

However, Curran has recommended the councillors uphold that proposed change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plans to rezone land at Woodbrook House, a 200-year-old stately home in south Dublin, for housing are set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12466,3662,61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-389526","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage","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\/389526","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=389526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389526\/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=389526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}