The plans for a 50,000-seater stadium at Lansdowne Road contravene the Dublin City Development Plan, the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights, residents' groups have told An Bord Pleanála.
The planning application for the €350 million stadium is also invalid because it proposes building on lands that are not owned by the Lansdowne Road Stadium Company, residents claim.
Appeals against the development were heard on the opening day of An Bord Pleanála's public hearing into the development in Dublin yesterday. The appeals will be followed by submissions from the stadium company and Dublin City Council which granted planning permission for the stadium last August.
More than 30 residents' groups and individuals from the areas immediately surrounding the current stadium attended the hearing yesterday. Their objections centred on the height of the development, its design, the addition of conference and non-sport facilities, the demolition of houses, the impact of construction, additional traffic and the decrease in property values.
Several objectors said the new stadium, because of its height at more than 48m (157ft) and its "bulk" which gives it a 20 per cent larger footprint than the existing ground, contravenes local zoning, while the addition of conference facilities breaks the stadium's own zoning.
Town planner Laura Finn represented the residents of Havelock Square, a group of 40 Victorian terraced houses immediately to the north of the stadium designated as an architectural conservation area.
"Under conservation area zoning, new buildings have to complement the existing architecture in development and scale . . . The amenity of the architectural conservation area of Havelock Square will be seriously compromised. This does not accord with the Dublin City Development Plan," Ms Finn said.
The addition of corporate and conference facilities to the development was a "material contravention" of the zoning of the stadium which, she said, is to preserve recreational amenities. Extensive corporate facilities, including a 400-seater and a 600-seater restaurant, are part of the stadium plans.
Conall Hamill, representing the residents of Shelbourne Road, said Croke Park was nearly 15m (49ft) smaller than the proposed stadium but held 82,500. The disparity was due to the large area given over to "lucrative conferencing", which was completely unnecessary given the proximity of the RDS. It was inexplicable that the stadium had not been deferred until the Ballsbridge Local Area Plan was completed by the city council and was an example of "bad urban planning", he said.
The height of the new building would be "completely unsympathetic to its surroundings", he said.
Several appellants had suggested that the pitch be sunk but, Mr Hamill said, the stadium company claimed this could not be done because of the level of the water table. However it has since emerged the firm intends to have an underground car park under the back pitch. The residents' group had also suggested the back pitch be part of the main stadium, but Mr Hamill said they suspect the area will be used to build a hotel at a later date.
He said the stadium company intends to demolish a large Victorian house at number 70 Shelbourne Road, which is an architectural conservation area. This would ruin what is a unique uninterrupted terrace almost a mile long, Mr Hamill claimed. "Unless the planning authorities exercise the utmost vigilance they could be creating a balls-up in Ballsbridge," he said.
Cepta Hopkins, of the O'Connell Gardens Boundary Group, said local houses could be substantially devalued as they would be completely overshadowed by the stadium and the residents' quality of life would be badly affected.
This, she said, contravened the Constitution and the EU Convention on Human Rights. The Swan culvert, a covered river that flows into the river Dodder was included in the development, however Ms Hopkins said the city council had confirmed the stadium company did not own the culvert. This rendered the application invalid, she said.
The hearing continues today.
