Councillor Mary O’Shea and I organised a public meeting on Wednesday night on the proposed City Development Plan. The meeting mostly focused on the impact of the Plan on the Navan Road district. This is because of the proposal to upgrade the Pelletstown area into a Key Development Area.
The (assumed) presence of a high quality public transport link means that the City planners want to allow more height and greater density in that area.
The meeting was well attended with a really good discussion. The main themes included –
Firstly, how to ensure that further building does not go ahead without adherence to existing planning conditions.
Secondly, strong resistance to more height and density.
Thirdly, the absence of a green dimension to this planning. A lot of questioning of how sustainable this planning is in light of future
challenges such as peak oil and climate change.
Finally, the need to deliver an area plan for the Pelletstown area.
Also a fair bit of discussion in relation to Reilly’s Bridge and the Fine Gael stance on the planning variation for this bridge.
We found this a very helpful meeting and hope to use the discussion to frame our contribution to the Development Plan process.