Retail planning guidelines for the Greater Dublin Area were changed last year at the behest of senior officials of South Dublin County Council to permit unlimited expansion of the Liffey Valley shopping centre at Quarryvale, The Irish Times has learned.
The consultants who prepared the guidelines were advised by the then South Dublin county manager, Mr Frank Kavanagh, that Quarryvale was the preferred location for a "major town centre" to serve the rapidly-expanding Lucan-Clondalkin area.
The county council has also hindered a subsidiary of Treasury Holdings Ltd in developing a more centrally-located site at Balgaddy, which had been designated as the future town centre in 1972, by refusing access to the site from Fonthill Road.
Last March, a proposed variation of the county development plan to upgrade the zoning of Quarryvale from district centre to town centre was put on hold by a unanimous decision of the county council "until the findings of the Flood tribunal are available".
The tribunal is investigating the controversial rezoning of Quarryvale in 1993 as a district centre with a cap of 250,000 sq ft on its shopping element.
Evidence has already been given by Mr Frank Dunlop of payments to several councillors at the time.
The development potential of Quarryvale had first been identified by Mr Tom Gilmartin in the late-1980s before the M50 was built.
His interest was subsequently acquired by the Cork developer, Mr Owen O'Callaghan, who developed the 180-acre site.
South Dublin County Council's strategic planning committee is meeting this afternoon to hear presentations from the rival developers involved in Quarryvale and Balgaddy to assess the right strategic location for the Lucan-Clondalkin town centre.
This followed the strategic planning committee's discovery that then county manager, Mr Kavanagh, had asked the retail planning consultants to amend their report in favour a major expansion of Liffey Valley as recommended by the council's director of planning, Mr Kieran Kennedy.
The officials' rationale was that Liffey Valley was "the more obvious choice" for major town centre designation - as Mr Kavanagh put in his letter to the consultants, DTZ Pieda - because of the nature and scale of the existing shopping centre and proposals to double its size.
In their draft report, dated June 2001, the consultants said that Balgaddy was "appropriately located" to serve the Lucan-Clondalkin area as a whole and "could accommodate a substantial retail element as part of a mixed use town centre development".
Referring to Liffey Valley, the report noted that it already had significant retail floor space, notwithstanding the absence of a large foodstore, and there was "an option" to focus further development there "to elevate its status to a major town centre".
In their final report last March, the consultants concluded that "only Liffey Valley provides the development potential . . . to meet the immediate pressures" for more shopping, while "we are advised" that Balgaddy might be suitable for an alternative mixed use development.
Owned jointly by Mr O'Callaghan and Grosvenor Estates, the London property company controlled by the Duke of Westminster, Liffey Valley is located at the north-eastern extremity of the Lucan-Clondalkin "new town" whereas Treasury's Balgaddy site is in the middle of it.
What stood in the way of developing Balgaddy in the past was a 20-year delay in building the Fonthill Road extension.
However, to get access to this new road, completed in 2000, Treasury required the consent of the county council - and this has been refused.
Its subsidiary, Everglade Properties Ltd, sought permission in June 2001 for a substantial mixed use scheme on the 21-acre site, including 283,000 sq ft (26,342 sq metres) of retail, but this was turned down last July largely because of the conflict with Liffey Valley.
Everglade needed the council's consent to gain access to the Fonthill Road through land in its ownership. But Mr Tom Doherty, the deputy county manager, felt he could not accede to this request because it would prejudice consideration of the planning application.
The county council's preferred access to the Balgaddy site is via lands to the north which are controlled by Mr O'Callaghan and he, too, was unwilling to grant access to potential competitors. As a result of this and other considerations, Everglade's plan inevitably failed.
With Mr Dunlop and Mr Gilmartin due to take the witness stand at the Flood tribunal, when it begins dealing with its Quarryvale module, the key question is whether the county council will abide by its decision last March to await the tribunal's findings before choosing between Quarryvale and Balgaddy.