Residents and conservation groups in Slane, Co Meath, are angered by a proposal to vary the new county development plan, fearing the measure would lead to the building of 65 houses in the village centre on land containing protected structures.
The garden of the former Georgian parochial house, land between it and the church at Chapel Street and the protected Killrian and Mount Charles Lodge structures are identified in the controversial proposal for Variation One to the Development Plan, 2007-13.
Known as the "order of priority" variation, the proposal outlines a blueprint for the order in which land in 30 towns and villages in Co Meath, including Slane, could be released for planning applications up to 2013.
Meath County Council planners have drafted the "order of priority" in response to Department of the Environment anxieties about the huge amount of land in Co Meath zoned for residential development, although not yet built upon, before the 2007-13 plan was even adopted.
The department called for "very firm measures" to channel and focus future residential growth in Meath to avoid the rate of development becoming "overwhelming".
The Slane Combined Residents' Association (SCRA), Boyne Valley Trust (BVT) and the Meath branch of An Taisce are concerned about the proposal, and are to hold a public meeting in the Conyngham Arms Hotel in Slane next Tuesday to gather support "to prevent the destruction of Slane".
The residents' groups say they are dismayed that in the proposed variation the grounds of Killrian and Mount Charles Lodge are identified as the site for 30 new houses, with 35 more proposed for the grounds of the old parochial house and adjacent dwellings in the village centre.
The residents' groups say the sites largely comprise protected structures, are within the core of the Slane village architectural conservation area (ACA) and were considered unsuitable for significant development within the last 12 months.
They are also concerned at the threat to the Slane environment of woodland, trees and buildings.
The variation is on display at council planning offices.
According to the council, proposed variations must be screened to ascertain if a full strategic environment assessment (SEA) is needed. In this case, the screening report, which is now on public display, concluded that an SEA was not required as the proposed variation sought to "phase the release of existing residentially-zoned lands and, as such, will have a neutral impact on the wider environmental resources".
Regarding the "order of priority", the council said the identification of lands did not assume they would be developed immediately. Each planning application received by the planning authority would be "assessed on its own merits".