Councillors face a choice: to sell the land, perhaps, and use the money for much-needed community facilities. Or to keep the land, perhaps, for much-needed affordable or social homes.
Dublin councillors rejected a proposal from chief executive Owen Keegan to sell bundles of lands. But the plot sales will likely come again before the council, one by one.
At a busy meeting on Monday, Dublin city councillors drilled into how the council will fund big projects in the coming few years, voted not to rescind plans for O’Devaney Gardens, and more.
John Coleman’s diary shows meetings with a cast of players, from AHBs to developers such as Hines, Hibernia REIT, and Cairn Homes – all of which fall outside the scope of the Lobbying Act.
Some said they’d sought, and gotten, assurances that it wasn’t suitable for housing. Others questioned whether it could have been used for something else.
Councillors rezoned the site from industrial to residential based on a pitch for 350 homes. But a new plan would be much taller and denser than they expected.
Planning documents list the many amenities in planned shared-living developments. But those living there may have fewer rights than renters in traditional homes.
Dublin City Council is looking at rezoning lands for up to 20,000 new homes. But how’s it going to stop the cost of the land – and so the housing – from shooting up?
“We’ve been concerned about the idea of speculation and land hoarding,” John O’Hara, the council’s chief planner, told councillors. So they’re moving slowly.
Most councillors voted against looking at changing direction with the council’s flagship housing projects on Monday. But there was more support for a rethink than before.
At meetings at City Hall this week, councillors talked about changes in plans for how to use council land, possible traffic changes around Sandymount Green, and the roll-out of more “hubs” for homeless families.
