A 5.5-acre park with a lake will be the centrepiece of a major new residential development to be built on the Dún Laoghaire Golf Club lands. Property Editor Orna Mulcahy reports.
Cosgrave Developments is about to lodge a planning application for 856 homes on part of the Dún Laoghaire Golf Club lands in south Co Dublin.
The 78-acre golf course, which the developers acquired in exchange for a new 300-acre course in Co Wicklow and a cash payment of around €20 million, is one the largest housing developments proposed for Dublin and will eventually have over 1,700 apartments and houses and 20 acres of public park.
The planning application, which will be lodged with Dún Laoghaire Rathdown Country Council in the coming week, is confined to the southern part of the land - 47 acres on the south side of the Upper Glenageary Road, which bisects the course.
The northern part of the course - a further 31 acres accessed from Tivoli Road - will be developed at a later stage, with planning due to be submitted by the end of the year for a further 900 homes.
Plans for the southern land, which stretches almost to Rochestown Avenue, include 230 large houses around the perimeter of the site and 626 apartments in four blocks, three of which are at the centre of the site, with a fourth on the corner of Glenageary Road and Kill Avenue.
A new pedestrian and cycle path is proposed to run through to Rochestown Avenue, via Sefton.
A 5.5-acre public park, including a lake, will form the centrepiece of the scheme, while large areas of green space are planned throughout the development, particularly at the rear of the site, which will be entirely houses in keeping with the surrounding low-level residential streets.
The new neighbourhood will be accessed via two entrances located on Glenageary Road and Kill Avenue.
The plans include a commercial centre at the entrance on Glenageary Road, with a convenience store, café and shops at ground level and around 897sq m (9,655sq ft) of office space on two floors overhead. There will also be a large crèche at the centre of the development.
The golf club's 700 or so members will continue to play on the course until June 2007, when they move to their new 27-hole course at Ballyman Road in Enniskerry built by Cosgrave.
The members agreed to sell the golf course in 2002 in return for the new course and clubhouse. Cosgrave will also pay the club around €20 million on completion of the new facilities, and this amount will be held by the club.
The developers plan to begin working on site as soon as it is vacated, with the first homes expected to come on the market in 2008. The houses will be predominantly three, four and five-bedroom homes, ranging from 143-369sq m (1,539-3,971sq ft).
New homes specialists Hooke & MacDonald, who will be selling the houses, are giving no indications on prices, but it's unlikely that the houses will cost less than €1 million.
Small cottages in the immediate area are currently selling for between €400,000 and €500,000 while in nearby Monkstown Farm, two-bed mid-terrace houses are trading between €475,000 and €550,000. Larger three and four-bedroom semis on Kill Avenue are making up to €750,000 while modern detached houses in cul-de-sacs off Glenageary Road are selling for between €1 million and €1.3 million.
The apartments will be in four hexagonal-shaped buildings that range in height from four to six storeys, with corners rising to seven storeys in at least one of the buildings.
They will be predominantly two-bedroom units. However, there will be over 100 one-bedroom units and around 120 family-sized three-bedroom apartments.
The houses will be concentrated in a series of terraces and cul-de-sacs at the southern end of the site. The master plan by architects McCrossan O'Rourke Manning has some surprising elements, not least the design of the houses, which are contemporary in style. It's a new departure for Cosgrave, whose signature housing style is traditional Tudor-style redbrick.
Cosgrave is likely to face considerable opposition from local residents, who have enjoyed vistas over the course for many years.
However, the fact that the plans open up the entire area from Tivoli Road to Rochestown Avenue, with public walkways and parkland along the way, is likely to please those who could see, but not enjoy the exclusive golf club lands.
