Finally, Balgaddy is back on the Dublin map, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor
Balgaddy is not a place most people could easily find on a map of Dublin.
It's a sort of "no man's land", sandwiched between Lucan and Clondalkin. But it could have become much more than that had it not fallen victim to the most corrupt planning decision in the history of Irish local government.
The core of the lands at Balgaddy, now designated as a Strategic Development Zone (SDZ), was to be the site of a major town centre serving the entire Lucan-Clondalkin area. It was zoned for this use as long ago as 1972 in Dublin County Council's first county development plan, but had lain fallow for a variety of reasons.
In 1991, the county council moved the goalposts and voted to rezone the 180-acre Quarryvale site beside the M50 - at the northeastern extremity of Lucan-Clondalkin "new town" - for a major shopping centre. This decision was taken against all planning advice at the time and is now being investigated by the Planning Tribunal.
Frank Dunlop, then a lobbyist acting on behalf of O'Callaghan Properties, has told the tribunal that he disbursed nearly €300,000 in bribes to 14 county councillors to secure their support for the Quarryvale rezoning. The biggest single payment (€76,000) went to the late Liam Lawlor for his work on this project. (Mr O'Callaghan told the tribunal he made only bona fide payments to politicians, and that the evidence Mr Dunlop gave it about corrupt payments came as a "total surprise").
And so, to paraphrase Macbeth, Birnam Wood came to Dunsinane. The first phase of Liffey Valley shopping centre, jointly owned by O'Callaghan Properties and the Duke of Westminster's Grosvenor Holdings, rose up on the Quarryvale site. And now, preposterously, it is to be aggrandised as the area's "town centre".
This is being done with the explicit backing of South Dublin County Council's planners, who apparently take the view that it is better to develop something that's already there rather than nothing, as in the sad case of Balgaddy. Indeed, they did everything in their power to prevent the 1972 county plan being implemented.
When Treasury Holdings Ltd, which owns the 15-acre Balgaddy town centre site, sought planning permission to develop it in recent years, it was flatly turned down - twice. Every planning reason under the sun was given for these refusals, but the underlying rationale was that the planners had put their eggs in Liffey Valley's basket.
Barkhill Ltd, the Grosvenor-O'Callaghan joint venture, was one of the objectors to Treasury's plans - described as "monolithic" and "premature" by An Bord Pleanála last October when it, too, refused planning permission for Balgaddy. Another objector was Dunloe Ewart plc, controlled by prolific apartment developer Liam Carroll.
Now, ironically, all of them and everyone else who owns land in the area - including the county council itself - stand to benefit from Minister for the Environment Dick Roche's decision to designate a tract of 170 hectares (408 acres) in Balgaddy-Clonburris as an SDZ because it has been deemed to be of "economic or social importance".
Situated west of the M50 and conveniently bisected by the Dublin-Kildare commuter line, the area is earmarked for development as a "new town" with a population of around 20,000 in a "well-designed and integrated urban environment", in line with regional planning guidelines which seek to consolidate the metropolitan area.
This could, and should, have been done six years ago. Instead, the development of Dublin was allowed to leapfrog into Louth, Longford, Westmeath, Laois, Offaly, Wexford, Carlow and even Cavan - not to mention the directly adjoining counties of Meath, Kildare and Wicklow, which have experienced explosive population growth. It is really shocking, even scandalous, that such a large tract of land as Balgaddy-Clonburris, relatively close to the centre of Dublin, was left fallow for so long because of the Government's laissez-faire tolerance of unbridled sprawl.
That's why so many people are now locked into an unsustainable lifestyle of long-distance car commuting.
Now, ever so belatedly, Dick Roche talks about the need to cater for the economic and population growth of the Greater Dublin Area (GDA) in a sustainable manner, improving the quality of life of communities by reducing the average journey time to work and providing necessary social facilities such as creches, schools and public transport.
"Moving forward, we want to create sustainable communities for the future where people and families can enjoy a good quality of life," he says.
Well, indeed. The wonder is that this penny didn't drop earlier, when it might have avoided so much unnecessary suburban sprawl. But better late than never. And there is the precedent of Adamstown SDZ, at the southern end of Lucan, for which South Dublin County Council's professional planners deserve some credit. It will now be up to them to prepare a planning scheme, or master plan, for the Balgaddy-Clonburris SDZ, setting out a detailed vision of how it should be developed.
After members of the public have had their say, the plan would have to be adopted by councillors before going to An Bord Pleanála for the final seal of approval.
One issue that the planners must take into account is that the land in question is marred by heavy-duty overhead power lines and their associated pylons.
If a mixed community is to be encouraged, pressure must be applied on ESB Networks to replace them with underground cables.