Councillors in Dún Laoghaire rejected a proposal last night to rezone just over two hectares (five acres) of residential land at Airfield Estate, an urban farm near Dundrum in south Dublin.
At a meeting of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, nine councillors voted in support and 19 against the motion to rezone the land from residential to open space.
The motion had also included a proposal to rezone land at Glenamuck North from industrial to residential, to "balance the residential zoning books" within the county development plan.
The seven Fianna Fáil councillors who tabled the motion put it forward as a mechanism to protect the future of Airfield against development, which could be hastened by a proposed new road that will run along its periphery.
However, Fine Gael, Labour and Green Party councillors argued that the move was premature, pending a review of the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown county development plan and they were also unsure that the land at Glenamuck was a suitable choice for residential development.
Local residents had lobbied for the protection of Airfield and had opposed the proposed new road partly on the grounds that it would threaten the future of the estate, which was left in trust by its owners, the Overend sisters, for the use of the people of Dublin.
Fianna Fáil councillor Maria Corrigan said she had received hundreds of e-mails from residents asking her to take whatever measures she could to ensure Airfield was not built on.
Labour councillor Aidan Culhane said the motion was a difficult one to vote against, but Airfield was in no imminent danger. He argued, along with other councillors, that to take the Airfield issue in isolation of the pending review of the county development plan would not be right.
Gerry Horkan, Fianna Fáil, accused councillors of playing party politics with the issue.
The meeting was temporarily thrown into chaos when Michael Gough, director of planning with the council, told them that in fact there would not be a review of the county development plan but simply a report on its progress and a review of the housing strategy.
