The Cosgrave Group has been granted a judicial review of An Bord Pleanβla's rejection of its planning permission for an industrial estate at Fassaroe, near Bray, Co Wicklow. The review is to be heard in the High Court on October 22.
The proposed industrial estate is adjacent to the company's 720-acre site at Ballyman, for which it is seeking a residential zoning from D·n Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.
Taken together, the developments are likely to re-open the debate on where exactly housing and industrial development is to be allowed in the Greater Dublin area.
In advance of a redrafting of the D·n Laoghaire-Rathdown County Development Plan, the group is understood to be preparing a planning application for its Ballyman site indicating a determination that the "new development front" it referred to in pre-planning submissions should be the Dublin/Wicklow border.
The property company has argued that significant additional zoned land is required to tackle the housing crisis and that Bally man would represent such an opportunity. While the group accepts that "numerically the existing zoned lands could meet the requirement for the duration of the housing plan", it argues that half of the available zoned land in D·n Laoghaire-Rathdown is not yet serviced and concludes that the council should now consider limiting further zoning for residential purposes.
The group claims the proposal "has been fully researched and the project is effectively ready to roll if given the necessary zoning designation by the council." The site is located about two miles from Enniskerry. It could accommodate between 5,000 and 7,000 houses - effectively a town, with its own centre, suburbs and industrial/business area. It would be developed from scratch within fifteen years.The proposed town would have up to 10,000 inhabitants and employ 15,000 people. It would also have a church, and Garda station.
However the scale has horrified local people who claim it will destroy the green-belt area between Bray and the village of Enniskerry and will erode Enniskerry's integrity as a centre in the midst of unspoilt scenery close to Dublin.
