£12m expected for 35 acres beside Castleknock College

Castleknock College is to sell almost 35 acres of land for housing close to the Phoenix Park in Dublin 15. It is one of the largest parcels of development land to come on the market in recent years and is likely to be of interest to most of the large house-building firms because of its prime location. Jones Lang Wootton is understood to be seeking around £12 million for the site, part of which runs along the M50 motorway. Almost 16.5 acres are zoned for residential, while the balance is zoned as open space in the 1993 Dublin County Development Plan. The eventual purchaser will obviously attempt to have this changed in view of the overall shortage of development land near the city.

Fingal County Council's draft development plan, due to be unveiled shortly, is expected to recommend a high quality housing development for the lands because of the visually sensitive nature of the site from the M50. Up to now, the planners have generally allowed eight to 10 houses per acre but since the introduction of the Bacon measures, the planning authorities have been under pressure to allow much higher densities - possibly 12 to 15 houses per acre - where existing services permit.

Although there are a number of access points on to the Castleknock land, the entrance to the site will have to be located along Carpenterstown Road, which continues on under the M50 to Clonsilla. The Vincentian Congregation said yesterday that the 35 acres being put up for sale are adjacent to the sports facilities of the college and have been used up to now as farmland. All the playing fields and sporting facilities available to the students will remain in use.

Stuart Harrington, chairman of the Board of Governors of the college, said the outlying land was clearly surplus to their needs as the college grounds extended to 75 acres, making them the largest of any college complex in the Dublin area. The Vincentians say the proceeds of the land sale will be used to finance the college development programme, which has been under way for a number of years. Funds would also be used to maintain and develop Vincentian ministries in Ireland and Nigeria and to provide for the retirement of personnel in Ireland. Castleknock College opened in 1835 and has 555 students, 146 of them boarders and the remainder day pupils.