‘Stop the Sallynoggin high-rise’ say local residents

(Pictured above are some of the members of the Stop the High-rise campaign)

Local opposition is growing to a proposed high-rise development of 172 build-to-rent apartments at the junction of Sallynoggin Road and Glenageary avenue.

The planned development, which includes four blocks up to nine storeys tall, has been lodged by Red Rock Glenageary Ltd to An Bord Pleanala (ref.312321) as a Strategic Housing Develoment (SHD).

(Above are computer generated images of what the proposed development will look like)

Among the objections from the community is that the predominantly one and two bed build-to-let apartments do not address the housing needs of the community, many of whom require family housing and others who wish to downsize and free up larger houses.

A petition, which only started on Sunday evening (23rd), already has over 900 signatures.

Nicola Coleman, a local community organiser who started the petition, said the petition is calling on elected officials and Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council to support the community of Sallynoggin and Glenageary to ensure their concerns were heard and acted upon.

“These strategic housing developments are a way of fast-tracking unsuitable developments to the detriment and above the concerns of the ordinary people who live locally,” she said.

“They are happening all over the city and the country, and as communities we really need to come together to oppose them in favour of more appropriate public housing.

“This proposal will be detrimental to those living both in close proximity to the development and its environs.”

If given the go-ahead, the proposed development will be located in an area of predominantly one-storey cottages and modest two-storey homes.

“It just simply fails to have any regard to the surrounding context of the area and will have a negative and detrimental impact on the character of the neighbourhood,” Ms Coleman said.

“A development of this size and height will cast large shadows over the immediate vicinity, block out light and overlook many homes and gardens in a grotesque contravention of people’s right to enjoy their property.

“We believe it will create an intensification of vehicular traffic at an already busy intersection, causing congestion and increase the risk of dangerous parking.

“And it will also pose a danger to vulnerable road users, especially the large population of children who walk to school, elderly people, cyclists, and those with special needs who both use the nearby Carmona services and live in the immediate vicinity.

“The proposed development raises serious environmental concerns also – the proposed location of the development currently acts as a soak for potential flood waters to the adjacent houses and locals fear it would increase the risk of flooding to long standing properties.

“As if all that wasn’t bad enough, this is a nine story skyscraper on a hilltop that is the flight path of many of our wild birds including Brent Geese who migrate to graze in the grasslands of our locality.”

Local TD Richard Boyd Barrett has also weighed in saying the plan is ‘unacceptable.’

“We need this site to be developed in the interests of the community and with homes that are affordable,” he said.

“This shocking nine-storey plan is only able to be submitted because the Fianna Fail/Fine Gael/Green government has extended the Strategic Housing Development legislation that allows these developers to bypass the local council and the county development plan.

“Many of the residents of Sallynoggin, a predominantly working class community will struggle to make individual representations to Bórd Pleanála and we are calling on all of our elected representatives in the Council and the Dáil to lodge these observations on our behalf.

“We are calling on our TDs to raise parliamentary questions on our behalf and to oppose the current system of fast track planning which hampers our democratic rights and rights to be consulted properly on development which affects us.

“Furthermore we call on the Minister for Housing to address our concerns and ensure that housing is developed in our area that meets the needs of the local community and not the greed of developers and their financiers.”