The national Office of the Planning Regulator says it should, but the council’s chief executive says Traveller homes can be built on any residentially zoned land.
“The near-total dominance of this typology has adverse long-term consequences for the creation of sustainable communities,” council chief Owen Keegan has said.
Councillors said some sites are being used as open space, or green space, or parking – and they worry rezoning won’t get affordable homes built anyway.
They should have looked at the phone kiosks as “street furniture” and so how they contribute to clutter on the footpaths, says Damian O’Farrell, an independent councillor.
The council also refused the owner’s request to demolish the existing structure on the site at 92/93 Francis Street, but on Tuesday it was being torn down.
“Talk about David and Goliath,” says Tony McDonnell, gesturing upwards at the seven-storey building directly next door to his home on Mayor Street Upper in the Docklands. “Well that is Goliath.”
Greater engagement? That’s welcome, says Lorcan Sirr, a housing lecturer at TU Dublin. But the council’s enthusiasm for trialling an app developed by a property-industry PR executive is worrying, he says.
