Dublin council to finalise plans for over 1,300 new homes

Plans for the development of the first phase of more than 1,300 homes to be built on 30 hectares of vacant Dublin City Council-owned land will be finalised within weeks.

The council plans to develop a mix of social housing, affordable "starter" homes, private, and the new model of "affordable rental" housing" outlined in Budget 2016, at sites the council owns at Oscar Traynor Road in Coolock, O'Devaney Gardens in Dublin 7, and St Michael's Estate in Inchicore.

The building programme, its most ambitious since the regeneration of Ballymun, is to start with 76 houses on the largest of the three sites, a 17- hectare plot at Coolock Lane, at the Santry end of Oscar Traynor Road, just east of the entrance to the Dublin Port Tunnel, which the council has designated for 655 homes.

Sinn Féin councillor Noeleen Reilly said there must be consultation with residents before the land goes on the market.

"Dublin City Council officials have informed me that a development brief is being prepared to market part of this site in the coming weeks," she said.

A spokesman for the council said a detailed brief was being finalised for the development of the first tranche of Oscar Traynor Road lands.

It “will be bought back to the councillors at a joint meeting of the council’s Housing and Planning SPCs [strategic policy committees] prior to being issued to the market”.

He said it was likely this meeting would be in May. The development of housing on the lands would be subject to a planning application, he said.

In January, councillors directed that 30 per cent of the 1,300 homes must be social housing.

However, it is not clear whether this first phase of 76 homes – 44 houses and 32 duplex units – will accommodate 30 per cent social housing tenants, or whether the 30 per cent will be provided as a quantum of the overall scheme of 655 homes.

Starter homes

The council had intended to reserve 16 homes for social housing, but to sell 60 as “starter homes”, from €240,000.

The Government defined starter homes as those costing €300,000 or less. The council said it believes it can reduce prices to €240,000 for a two-bedroom house and €260,000-€275,000 for a three-bed.

Separately, the council is to present plans to councillors today for the demolition of O’Devaney Gardens to make way for its redevelopment.

Almost 400 new homes will be built on the site of the 1950s flat complex near Phoenix Park.