Treasury Holdings, which paid the Haughey family a reported £6 million (€7.6m) for a site of about nine acres at Kinsealy village, will be watching with interest the fortunes of a neighbouring site beside the local Kinsealy parish church.

A company called Dundas Limited with ambitions to develop a mixed-use neighbourhood centre at Kinsealy last week saw its scheme appealed to An Bord Pleanβla.

But even before the parcel gets that far it will have to be the subject of an area action plan currently being prepared by Fingal County Council.

For it means the development of its lands, which are zoned for "rural village use", is still some way off. In the meantime, of course, the company has set its sights on the remaining Abbeville estate in a move which may prompt a whole new approach to the zoning of the area.

But for the moment Dundas Ltd must await the outcome of Bord Pleanβla's deliberations given that a third-party appeal was lodged last week. Envisaged in the scheme, which was modified after consultation with the county planners, are 28 homes in three blocks of terraced duplexes.

These involve 14 two-bed apartments at ground floor level with 14 three-bed, two-storey townhouses.

The inclusion of the residential element was in response to the council's request to scale down and reduce the overall floor area of the original proposals, in order to comply with the development plan standard.

Also proposed are four retail units, a restaurant and a clinic/creche along a new shopping street. A reduced amount of office and light industry use at first and second-floor levels in a three-storey commercial block is also proposed.

The planning application noted that "light industrial use" would include data-processing, research and development and software development items, most of which would have been considered office work.

Landscaping proposals and site works include patios behind each townhouse and apartment, a central courtyard and parking for 160 cars and a public open space with a path along the river. Four pedestrian access points are proposed from Malahide Road to the site, including three sets of steps and a pedestrian access ramp.

Provision for the use of the new car park by the parishioners of Kinsealy parish church is proposed. A new footpath with a bus stop recess and a stone boundary wall, to match the existing church wall, are planned across the front of the site on Malahide Road.

Part of the front stone boundary wall to Kinsealy parish church - which is a protected structure - on Malahide Road is to be recessed to allow for the provision and extension of a new footpath across the front of the church to the corner of Chapel Road. Vehicular access to the development is via a shared entrance road.

The land on which this development was planned is already zoned for development, as is the small parcel bought from the Haugheys earlier this year. However the majority of the remaining Abbeville estate of some 270 acres is agricultural land and any future developer will have to secure rezoning in the next development plan. Further difficulties to be faced by any developer in the area include the determination of the Malahide Green Party to lead a campaign to retain as much of Kinsealy as a green belt as possible.

Ironically, it is largely thanks to the organic nature of the farming there that Kinsealy now represents some of the few large parcels of lands in the State which have not been treated to large doses of artificial fertilisers over the years, making the land extremely desirable from an agricultural or research point of view.