APPROVAL TO offload more than €30 million in debts accrued by Dublin City Council on loans for some 30 hectares of undeveloped housing land will be sought from councillors today.
The Department of the Environment has agreed to pay off the loans of local authorities who want to dispose of land banks they are unlikely to develop to stop the escalating interest payments. The lands are then transferred to the State.
However, the move is likely to leave hundreds of residents in a North Dublin “ghost estate” without proper services because council-owned land, previously earmarked for a new town centre, will be returned to the State and is unlikely to be developed for years.
Most of the 30 hectares was to have been used for social and affordable housing, but 9.3 hectares was earmarked for the development of a town centre for up to 30,000 people in the new “north fringe” area of the city.
The council is struggling to service mounting interest payments on three parcels of land bought in north Dublin. To date more than €8.5 million in interest has been paid on the vacant plots.
Under a new land aggregation scheme, the loans will be repaid by the department and the land transferred to the recently established Housing and Sustainable Communities Agency. The agency will determine the best use of the land, in consultation with the National Asset Management Agency.
The largest of the council’s three plots of unwanted land is a 13-hectare site at Ayrefield off the Malahide Road, which was bought in 1999 from Livingstone Properties and Kieran Finane for €18.8 million. More than €7.6 million has been paid in interest on the loan, giving it a current value of €26.4 million. The council said there is “no likelihood of development” of these lands.
At nearby Belcamp Lane the council bought 1.7 hectares of land from the Oblate Fathers in 2000 for €1.9 million. Interest has pushed the loan value up to €2.4 million. A further 1.35 hectares were bought at Belcamp from John Francis Deering in 2000 for just under €1.7 million. The loan value on the land is now just over €2 million.
The council had agreed to sell 9.3 hectares of the Ayrefield lands for €60 million to Stanley Holdings to be used as a town centre for its Belmayne development and the planned growth of a new suburb of up to 30,000 people. No contracts were ever signed and the developers pulled out of the deal two years ago. Around 700 apartments have been built in Belmayne, between 400 and 450 of which are occupied by residents, local Labour councillor Seán Kenny said.
“People who bought homes in Belmayne were clearly given to understanding there would be this town centre, with a library, a wide range of shops and other facilities they were shown in the glossy brochure,” he said.
The undeveloped site was also blocking direct access for the residents of Belmayne to the new Clongriffin Dart station, he added.
The city councillors must approve the land and loan disposal before it can be processed.
Today, councillors representing the north central area of the city will be asked for their approval before the proposal is put next month to the full council.
Mr Kenny said he would not approve the transfer until he received clarification in relation to the land aggregation scheme, including a reference to the possibility of buying back some of the land transferred.
The State’s local authorities have a combined housing loan debt of about €650 million. Most local authorities are expected to apply to offload some or all of their unwanted land to the housing agency.
