{"id":418164,"date":"2026-04-26T08:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T08:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/418164\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T08:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T08:54:08","slug":"dun-laoghaire-rathdown-golf-lands-will-not-be-zoned-for-housing-after-councillors-vote-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/418164\/","title":{"rendered":"D\u00fan Laoghaire-Rathdown golf lands will not be zoned for housing after councillors\u2019 vote \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A south Dublin<\/a> golf facility has been saved from redesignation for future housing<\/a>, following a vote of D\u00fan Laoghaire-Rathdown County<\/a> Councillors of all parties against the proposal.<\/p>\n

The council\u2019s executive had urged councillors to support a proposal to identify the Stepaside Golf Centre and Jamestown Pitch and Putt Course as \u201clong-term strategic and sustainable settlement sites\u201d in the county development plan.<\/p>\n

The owner of both golf facilities and several hundred locals had made submissions to the council opposing the move. Rosa Roe, whose family owns the facilities, said she had \u201cno intention\u201d of redeveloping the lands. Some locals branded the proposals as \u201cshameful\u201d and an \u201coutrage\u201d, with others saying they show an \u201cabhorrent disregard\u201d for local amenities and would \u201cdestroy the very fabric of the area\u201d.<\/p>\n

The lands at the edge of the Dublin Mountains are currently zoned for amenity and agricultural use, and although the council\u2019s plan would not have immediately changed that zoning, it would have put the golf facilities into a category which \u201cmay deliver housing\u201d in the future.<\/p>\n

The proposed redesignation followed an edict last summer from Minister for Housing James Browne<\/a> that local authorities must rezone significant additional land to help tackle the housing crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ireland is \u2018delivering\u2019 more social homes, but that doesn\u2019t mean it is building themOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Two council motions opposing the redesignation were last week proposed by Fine Gael\u2019s Pierce Dargan and a number of other Fine Gael, Fianna F\u00e1il and Independent councillors, and Labour\u2019s Lettie McCarthy. Fianna F\u00e1il, Fine Gael, Labour, Green Party, People Before Profit and Independent Councillors all voted in support of either the first or second motion.<\/p>\n

Dargan said he wanted to do everything he could to \u201ctry and safeguard this amazing public amenity\u201d that \u201cprovides so much community benefit to everyone who is from Kilternan and Stepaside\u201d.<\/p>\n

The owners had \u201ccome out publicly and said they want to maintain their family business, and that would be jeopardised by putting it into the land bank\u201d.<\/p>\n

McCarthy asked the council to \u201cplease not allow an invasion on the virgin lands of the Dublin Mountains to take place\u201d.<\/p>\n

The local area had seen \u201cunprecedented development\u201d, she said. \u201cEnough is enough, give this Kilternan area a little bit of breathing space.\u201d<\/p>\n

She noted that the area surrounding the lands lacked adequate school or creche spaces, sewage or water facilities, adequate cycling or public transport infrastructure, or a public park.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Council approves increases in parking, waste and rent in D\u00fan Laoghaire-RathdownOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Senior planner Louise McGauran said the redesignation reflected that the land \u201cmay deliver housing within the subsequent development plans\u201d, and this gave infrastructure providers such as Uisce \u00c9ireann<\/a> \u201cthat lead in time required to service the sites\u201d.<\/p>\n

The next development plan post-2028 would last for 10 years, she said, and the redesignation \u201cgives us that ability to signpost those areas we are potentially looking at in the 10-year plan, and we will have to zone for a significant number of housing units in that 10-year plan\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A south Dublin golf facility has been saved from redesignation for future housing, following a vote of D\u00fan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[615,12842,42,3662,43,40,38,41,39,776],"class_list":["post-418164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-dublin","tag-dun-laoghaire-rathdown-county-council","tag-headlines","tag-housing-crisis","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uisce-eireann"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418164","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=418164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}