Retirement village plan shot down

A CONTROVERSIAL proposal that would have allowed for the construction of a retirement village in an environmentally sensitive area of the foothills of the Dublin Mountains has been turned down.

The proposal to make a variation to the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Development Plan would have allowed for a retirement home to be built on lands currently zoned for agricultural use on a 16-acre site on the mountain side of the M50 at Ticknock.

At the monthly meeting of the council on Monday, December 11, councillors agreed without a vote to accept the strong recommendation of County Manager, Owen Keegan, to reject the proposal.

The scheme, known as the

‘Grange Independent Living and Retirement Village’, would have included a nursing home, residential units, a stroke rehabilitation clinic and community and recreational facilities including retail outlets, restaurants and a village centre.

The site is currently zoned B –

‘to protect and improve rural amenity and to provide for the development of agriculture’.

The council received 100 submissions on the proposal as part of a four-week public consultation period. Of the submissions made, some 67 opposed the variation, 24 supported it and the remaining nine were neutral.

In a report on the public consultation, County Manager Keegan told councillors that any substantial built form at the location

“will be visually intrusive and highly visible from the M50, from areas proximate to Ticknock and from parts of the wider Dublin conurbation

?.

He said he was also concerned about

“the potential range of activities proposed for the site and the possibility of a creeping introduction of other uses beyond those notionally set in the variation

?.

Meanwhile, at the same meeting, councillors also adopted a planning scheme for the Cherrywood Strategic Development Zone (SDZ), an area of 264 hectares of primarily green field lands at the end of the Green Luas line between the N11 and M50.

The scheme plans three new villages surrounded by residential neighbourhoods, which will be served by a town centre with substantial retail and commercial space and a major employment base with the potential to accommodate over 17,000 workers.

The scheme includes high density development with building heights of between two and five storeys.

A spokesperson for the council said that in the long-term Cherrywood had the potential to become an engine for economic growth of national, regional and local significance.

The spokesperson also pointed out that there has already been significant strategic investment in infrastructure in the area, with the Luas extension to Cherrywood, the M50 upgrade and the Shanganagh Waste Water Treatment Plant.

“It is considered that Cherrywood should be further developed to maximise the return on public investment to date in these strategically located lands,

? the spokesperson said.