Kildare council to zone more land for housing

KILDARE county councillors are expected to embark on a fresh round of land rezoning after finalising an outline draft development plan for the county at a council meeting today.

Despite a recent statement by the county planning officer, Mr Philip Jones, that there is already enough zoned land to last for 50 years, the council's rezoning majority, consisting of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and PD members appears anxious to proceed with more.

An updated audit of lands zoned for housing, requested by Labour Party and Democratic Left councillors, shows that a total of 2,850 acres is available for development, sufficient for about 22,800 houses at the standard suburban density of eight units per acre. If the large scale rezonings proposed for Kilcock and Maynooth, still at draft stage, were included, the figure would rise by a further 4,100 houses.

The draft county plan projects a population increase of 30,000 over the next 15 years. This exceeds, by a factor of two, the figure for Kildare agreed by the MidEast Regional Authority, which brings together Kildare, Meath and Wicklow county councils.

Co Kildare's population is currently 135,000, having doubled since 1966. Much of the increase is overspill from Dublin and is concentrated in the north east of the county, around Celbridge, Leixlip, Kilcock and Maynooth, within commuting distance of the city.

The draft county plan, prepared by consultants Jonathan Blackwell Associates, aims at rectifying this imbalance by promoting development in the Naas/Newbridge area of mid Kildare. Local critics, such as Councillor Catherine Murphy (DL), fear that this could lead to an "open season" on rezoning.

The village of Clane has already seen its population increase by 67 per cent over the past five years. However, despite opposition from 97 per cent of local people, the county council adopted a series of rezoning proposals which, if implemented, would treble its size at 11,000.