A CONTROVERSIAL proposal to allow for the development of a retirement village at the foot of the Dublin mountains has been put out to public consultation by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.
The proposal involves a variation to the local authority’s county development plan which specifies that a seven-hectare site on the outer side of the M50 at Ticknock near Sandyford a retirement village will be “permitted in principle”.
At present, the land in question is zoned to “protect and improve rural amenity and to provide for the development of agriculture”.
If the proposal is agreed, the land will be available in the future for “residential [independent, assisted and convalescent living], ancillary medical and related uses, associated retail, pharmacy, restaurant, care centres, community facilities and village centre uses”.
Despite the advice of county manager Owen Keegan, councillors had agreed to initiate the variation in July 2011, but there had been delays in bringing it forward.
In his report to councillors at last month’s county council meeting, Mr Keegan told councillors there was “clearly something incompatible” between the proposal and the agricultural zoning. The retirement village “being promoted” satisfied neither the rural amenity nor the agricultural policy imperatives of the area’s zoning, he said. There were concerns about the open-ended “village centre uses” term, he said, as there was no category in the development plan that defined it.
Details of the proposed variation are available for inspection at the county hall in Dún Laoghaire. The closing date for submissions on the proposal is October 12th.
