Some of the country's largest property developers are behind the first planning application for 254 hectares of lands that make up the north Drogheda environs.
The lands are subject to a master plan adopted by Louth County Council which allows for the population of the town to grow by 20,000 in the next 15 years. As part of the planning process the council met the consortia of developers who expressed interest in the significant land bank sometime ago.
The application is made by Euro Construction Corporation Limited but has the support of Manor Park developments, McCaughey Developments Ltd and other landowners.
The master plan has divided the area into three neighbourhood districts and allows for their phased development.
The application is to build a linear park which the applicants say "is identified in the plan as a central spine of open space across the entire plan lands linking the three identified neighbourhoods".
The linear park will also contain along its length four public parks to act as open space nodes for the plan lands. The total area of the five parks is just over 14 hectares. The cost of the infrastructure to develop the entire plan area is estimated at €156 million which would support over 6,000 new homes.
The key piece of infrastructure is the Port Access Route which is at the northern boundary of the lands and which will link the M1 with Drogheda Port. A decision on the planning application is not expected before September.