Stepaside houses threatened by MEP's objections

Plans for up to 3,000 houses at Stepaside in South County Dublin may run foul of the European Commission because of objections.

Deane Homes is the latest development company to apply to Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for planning permission for 178 units between Kilgobbin and Sandyford Roads, in south County Dublin. However, the Dublin Green Party MEP Patricia McKenna has objected to the Council's zoning of the land, maintaining that an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was required under EU legislation.

The council decided not to carry out an EIA on its decision to rezone some 200 acres around Stepaside, arguing that the land would not be developed as a single project, and each housing application could be assessed on its own merits.

The council said it would provide an integrated area action plan for Stepaside in the light of the potential impact the development had in almost doubling the size of the village. The integrated area action plan was to assess issues such as open space, public transport and access to schools and shopping.

Subsequent to this, Deane Homes asked the council to give it approval for its development of four and five-bedroom semidetached houses, three-bedroom townhouses and bungalows, and two-bedroom apartments and duplexes.

Temporary access from Ballyogan Road through the neighbouring estate of Meadowfields, which is itself under construction, has been sought, pending the construction of a new local distributor road from Ballyogan Road. The application from Deane, which has an address at Units 12/13 Sandyford Shopping Centre, Kilgobbin Road, was lodged with Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council earlier this month.

Ms McKenna has, however, filed a complaint with the European Commission claiming a breach of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive. She said an EIA was required to assess the overall effects of major developments - in this case, the impact of large scale housing on Stepaside. Ms McKenna claimed the situation was similar to the Ballymun regeneration plan, where the same method of assessing separate applications rather than the whole development was favoured. The European Commission has taken issue with "project splitting" and warned last December that an overall EIA had to be carried out. A 19-page letter was sent by Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom last month, asking the Government to comment on breaches of the EIA Directive throughout the country. Ireland has already lost a court case on incorrect transposition into national law of the EIA Directive in 1999.