£261m development plan to change the face of Ballymun

Ballymun could become "the capital of northside Dublin" - but only if the £261 million plan to regenerate the estate is treated as a special case, according to the senior official in charge.

Mr Ciaran Murray, chief executive of Ballymun Regeneration Ltd (BRL), said he now spends much of his time talking to prospective developers who are "only too anxious" to build commercial facilities in the area, if tax incentives are made available.

"All the big players have been out here, including Monarch and Green Property, and there's even interest from the US and China because they see the Irish economy performing so well. Only last week I had a serious meeting with a group from Shanghai."

The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, called last Wednesday evening to see BRL's exhibition of its master plan for Ballymun, under which all the system-built high-rise blocks from the 1960s are to be replaced by low-rise housing on a more human scale.

But with so much competition - even within Dublin - for tax designation under the new integrated area plan framework for urban renewal, there are fears that Ballymun could lose out to less deserving areas without such a long history of social deprivation.

According to Mr Murray, BRL's master plan now has "overwhelming support" from the estate's population of 20,000 and "very significant support" from people living on the fringes of Ballymun, who see that there is a prospect of effecting real change in the area.

The only legal challenge it faces is a High Court action from one Willow Park resident, Mr Vincent Reggazoli, who is challenging BRL's right to build houses in part of Poppintree Park, which would reduce it from 65 to 46 acres. The case is due to be heard in October.

"The feedback we're getting is that there is an acceptance that Ballymun is a special case which deserves priority," Mr Murray said. "Our plan is all about building the local economy in tandem with the housing and we need positive discrimination to achieve its objectives.

"Ballymun is comparable in size to Sligo, yet it has no private housing whatsoever other than the parish priest's house and a few cottages on the old airport road. It has no streets, no hotels, cinemas, solicitors' or accountants' offices - you name it."

Mr Murray said Ballymun needed a viable town centre and a business park to help tackle long-term unemployment. "For development to take place, we need a competitive advantage because we're working against an image problem built up over the past 30 years."

He believes it is a mark of maturity among the residents that they have consented to bringing private housing into the area - at the rate of 70 per cent of a sizeable surplus after rehousing local people. "So in fact some of the first houses we build will go to outsiders."

This will apply "right across the board", starting with the first phase early next year, when 11 sites will be developed to provide 750 housing units. These will be used in the first instance to rehouse 550 tenants, with private housing at 70 per cent of the balance.

The aim is to create a more balanced community, with sufficient purchasing power to sustain commercial developments in the area - particularly in the main street, where four- and five-storey buildings will line a new boulevard replacing the present dual carriageway.

The housing density will be "around 15 to 16 units per acre", but it may be higher depending on demand. BRL sees potential for "section 23-type" apartments above shops on the main street, perhaps for renting to students attending nearby Dublin City University.

To overcome resistance to anything other than two-storey houses with front and back gardens, BRL has been pointing to such models as Dublin Corporation's duplex housing scheme at Bride Street/Golden Lane and showing photographs of derelict front gardens in Glasnevin.

"It's a question of educating people", said Mr Mick McDonagh, senior architect on the design team. "Repetitive two-storey layouts, such as in Clondalkin or Tallaght, have their own form of bleakness. We need something higher to provide a sense of enclosure around parks."

An impressive panel of 26 architectural practices, including some from abroad, has been selected to design smaller housing schemes, with the larger ones required to be advertised in the EU journal. The aim is to avoid the monotony of having row after row of the same houses.

There will also be an architectural competition for a mixed development of public and private housing on a prominent site at the entry to Ballymun - currently occupied by a piece of sculpture consisting of stone and concrete boulders and known as "Stonehenge".

The first "flagship project" will be an EU-funded community arts centre costing £2 million. Containing a theatre, dance studios and resource offices, this is at design stage and will be built on a vacant site adjoining McDonagh Tower to form the edge of a civic square.

McDonagh and Pearse towers will be the first to be demolished in the spring of 2000, when the first 750 houses are due to be completed. The remaining five towers, also named after leaders of the 1916 Rising, and 19 eight-storey spine blocks, will be demolished in phases.

BRL is examining the possibility of recycling the huge volume of rubble which this, and the demolition of the 10 four-storey "walk-up" blocks, will generate. It may even be crushed on site and used as hardcore to provide foundations for new houses and streets.

The latest estimate for the demolition and rebuilding of housing in Ballymun, including landscaping and community facilities, is £261 million. A further £300 million is expected to come from the private sector, for main street retail shops and a large "technology park".

"It will take that level of private-sector investment to make this work," Mr Murray insisted. "The last thing we would want is to waste a lot of public money doing a North Clondalkin or West Tallaght here, with almost none of the elements that go to make up a town."

He said the extensive public consultation programme had changed BRL's master plan "for the better", though its overall thrust is still the same. Each local community group now has its own design sub-committee to liaise with the planners on issues of detail.

The master plan remains on public exhibition in a large warehouse to the rear of BRL's offices on Ballymun Road. This impressive facility is also being used to demonstrate the seriousness of purpose behind the plan and to begin aggressively marketing the area for investment.

"There is a sense that we're almost creating history here," said Mick McDonagh, when asked to explain the new level of interest in Ballymun. How it all turns out in 10 years' time will depend very much on whether the Government designates the area for tax incentives.