Members of Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council will tonight decide on a controversial plan to allow the development of 98 affordable homes on a protected site on the corner of Military Road and Killiney Hill Road.
The 1.5-hectare site at Kilmarnock House is close to some of the most expensive homes in the State. The site is currently zoned 0/0, which does not allow any increase in residential density.
However, Ellen Construction, in conjunction with the Government's Affordable Housing Partnership, put forward a plan to develop 140 two-bedroom apartments. They requested the council to vary the county development plan to facilitate this and the change has now been recommended by county management.
Councillors have been told that the 98 units would be offered to applicants on the council's affordable homes waiting list at an estimated cost of €299,000 each. The remaining 42 apartments in the scheme would be sold for prices between €500,000 and €600,000.
However, Cllr Maria Bailey (Fine Gael) said that the rezoning was a smokescreen. "This is not about affordable housing, it is about rezoning land," she said.
Under the Planning and Development Act 2000, builders can hand over 20 per cent of new developments to the local authority or negotiate a cash payment instead. Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council provided just 69 affordable homes last year but has netted €7.79 million in "cash-in-lieu" from builders between 2003 and 2006.
