A decision from An Bord Pleanála on the Adamstown Strategic Development Zone (SDZ) at Lucan, west Dublin, is expected before the end of September following the conclusion yesterday of an oral hearing into the project. Conor Lally reports.
At the final session of the proceedings, Chartridge Ltd, the consortium of developers behind the scheme, said the construction of roadways in the Lucan area, which residents say are vital, should not be seen as a prerequisite for Adamstown.
Mr Bernard McHugh, on behalf of Chartridge, told the hearing there was no "compelling technical evidence" for the phasing of the outer ring road near Lucan into the scheme.
"The Dublin Transportation Office has confirmed the ORR is not a strategic road. The same applies to the Celbridge link road," he said.
The board should not introduce the provision of these roads as a "guillotine mechanism" to halt development. At a minimum, Mr McHugh said, the developers should in each phase be allowed to build more dwellings than the number favoured by South Dublin County Council. This would allow the developers continue to constantly raise funds, by selling houses, to meet their obligations on infrastructure and facilities.
Under the SDZ concept, a development is split into phases. South Dublin County Council wants the Adamstown development to have 800 dwellings in each of its 13 phases. Developers are obliged to provide a set amount of infrastructure and facilities for residents before they are permitted to start building houses in the next phase.
Adamstown will have more than 10,000 dwellings on a 500-acre site.
Mr McHugh said other agencies, such as Government Departments, should bear more responsibility, with the developers, in relation to phasing. He rejected the county council's view that, under the developers' plan, "too much is left too late".
Chartridge wants to build 1,200 houses in each of the first five phases and it believes more facilities and infrastructure will be made available earlier under this accelerated model.
In a brief summing up Mr Bernard McHugh SC, for South Dublin County Council , said the council believed the Adamstown draft plan represented sustainable development. "We believe it is an excellent scheme and we want it to happen."
He added that the use of the word "guillotine" by the developers in relation to phasing was "a very stark analysis". The developers' arguments that phasing represented a financial risk to the project were difficult to accept as the developers had supplied the hearing with no financial projections on Adamstown.
Green Party TD Mr Paul Gogarty, who has joined the Deliver It Right Lucan residents' group in opposing aspects of the plan, said a raft of measures needed to be firmly tied into phasing if Adamstown was to avoid becoming the State's latest urban sprawl. "There needs to be tighter control on the phasing of school openings and school capacity and the completion of purchase or lease of school sites. And a review of the scheme should happen after every second phase, rather than phase six. At the very minimum there should be a review after phase four and phase six."
Mr Gogarty added: "Adamstown can only work by a complex system of checks and balances. The current system of phasing is not tight enough."
Mr Seán Giblin of Deliver It Right said an environmental impact study needed to be done before planning for Adamstown went any further. Proper transport modelling using accurate projected traffic flows should also be undertaken, he said.
"The developers have cited the economic cost and risk of such phasing conditions. I say business is inherently adaptable and therefore is very capable of coming up with the solution to allow the necessary phasing conditions to be delivered."
Adamstown masterplan can deliver high-quality lifestyle: page 12