{"id":658318,"date":"2026-10-18T09:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T09:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/658318\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T09:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T09:54:08","slug":"west-dublin-residents-appeal-for-final-vote-against-controversial-land-rezoning-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/658318\/","title":{"rendered":"West Dublin residents appeal for final vote against controversial land rezoning \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dublin<\/a> residents have protested against a final vote on the controversial rezoning of \u201cecologically unique\u201d land due to take place on Monday. <\/p>\n

A demonstration against the move was held in Lucan<\/a>, west Dublin, on Saturday, calling on local councillors to vote against the proposal<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Save St Edmundsbury Protest Committee held a walk to oppose the rezoning of the St Edmundsbury site in the Liffey valley, owned by businessmen John Magnier<\/a> and JP McManus<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The land is currently zoned as \u201chigh amenity\u201d due to its environmental and natural amenity value.<\/p>\n

Sites at Finnstown Castle, between Lucan and Adamstown, and at Coldcut Road, south of the Liffey Valley shopping centre, have also been proposed for rezoning.<\/p>\n

Committee member and Independent councillor on South Dublin County Council<\/a> Helen Farrell said it was not about \u201crefusing housing in our area\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cRezoning has to happen in some places but the lands at St Edmundsbury are ecologically unique,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

She described the area as a \u201cvery ancient landscape and an ancient farmland and the two landscapes kind of work together.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there\u2019s a very rich biodiversity and we really want to see these lands saved.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Removal of \u2018unconscionable\u2019 housing ban on Magnier and McManus Liffey Valley lands urgedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Residential rezoning for the area has been proposed on numerous occasions over recent decades but refused.<\/p>\n

Farrell believes efforts should be focused on \u201cgetting high density housing into the city centre on some of the vacant properties that have laid vacant for decades\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dereliction needed to be tackled, she argued, rather than building on \u201chighly fertile agricultural lands in the middle of a food crisis and a climate crisis\u201d. <\/p>\n

Councillors previously voted against rezoning the land. Now, protesters are calling on them \u201cto vote against residential rezoning, as they did the last time\u201d, Farrell said. <\/p>\n

A final vote is scheduled for Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really want the Government to notice that this should be part of the Liffey Valley Park going forward and this is what we should leave for future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s protest walk began outside the main entrance gates at St Edmundsbury and finished at the village green in Lucan.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0John Magnier and JP McManus could see rich returns if \u20ac4m Liffey Valley lands are rezonedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The Irish Times previously reported that the council\u2019s chief executive, Colm Ward, had proposed rezoning the three sites, which combined could accommodate more than 1,700 homes.<\/p>\n

It followed an edict last summer from Minister for Housing James Browne that all local authorities must provide significant additional land for housing.<\/p>\n

More than 1,600 submissions opposed the rezoning of the St Edmundsbury site. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dublin residents have protested against a final vote on the controversial rezoning of \u201cecologically unique\u201d land due to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[615,61,60,20042,66155,21104,43,13357],"class_list":["post-658318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-dublin","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-john-magnier","tag-jp-mcmanus","tag-lucan","tag-news","tag-south-dublin-county-council"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658318","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=658318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}