What’s another year? That’s how long it will be before Dublin City Councillors have to re-consider plans for high-rise, mixed use development in the Ballsbridge area again.

One of Ballsbridge’s characteristics is the expanse of green trees and parkland and this alone would cause concern about any plans for re-development.

On 11th June the South East Area Committee of Dublin City Council met to discuss the Area Plan for Ballsbridge and overwhelmingly rejected it.

The assistant city manager Michael Stubbs formally proposed the local area plan. Councillor Mary Freehill could not understand how it usually takes so long to get local area plans done and “all of a sudden a developer buys land and it is done like that.”

The chairman of the SEA Committee, Councillor Dermot Lacey said that the whole plan should be rejected and the process begun again. It was, he said, “unamendable” in its present form. The viewers’ gallery was packed with residents who had campaigned from the outset against the plan, which could see high-rise buildings of up to 20 storeys in the grounds of the Berkeley Court and Jury’s Hotels as well as the former Veterinary College and Hume House.

Councillor Wendy Hederman said the DEGW report on heights did no identify Ballsbridge for high rise. She said this zoning refers to inner-suburb mixed use, while the area is residential.
Councillor Daithí Doolan said there should have been adequate consultation with the community and he said the plan was a “developers’ charter.” Councillor Gerard Gillen said there is a need to temper the area vision with the requirements of business and there had been a lot of “jumping the gun” in this. He said that Fine Gael was against the plan.

The plan was rejected by the Local Area Committee and later a full Council meeting also rejected the plan. Councillor Dermot Lacey told ‘NewsFour’ that there would have to be a better plan for Ballsbridge, “one which takes into account the wider needs of the area and not just the developers.”