Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown could see close to 24,000 new homes if unused land was put to use
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council (DLR) has estimated that close to 24,000 new homes could be built in the county over the next 15 years if unused, existing zoned lands are put to use.
Senior Planner at DLR, Louise McGauran, presented a report to councillors at a council meeting this month that 23,985 units could be built by 2040 on close to 360ha of undeveloped land.
“We did a Residential Development Capacity Audit (RDCA) – it looked at the capacity of DLR’s current land for housing and how much of it is undeveloped,” said Ms McGauran.
The identified land will be put up for planning permission for a few weeks, starting from the Christmas period until January 15 – and it will include state-owned and public land.
Councillors at the meeting cautioned that building the new homes would be unaffordable and could not be made available for social housing.
“DLR has exceeded its housing targets by well over 140pc – we have been doing very well," said Green Party councillor for the Glencullen-Sandyford area Oisín O'Connor.
“I’m worried that this is a kneejerk reaction to cover failures by the government – this is only going to be good for people who already own land, since it’s not only going to be state-owned land.”
Cllr John Kennedy called it an “unrealistic goal” for the Dublin area.
“Trying to fit in 300,000 new people into the Dublin region in the next 15 year would be equivalent to moving in the same population of Waterford,” he said.
“I don’t think there’s enough focus on the larger Irish context, the rest of the country has to pull its weight when it comes to housing.”
Through the RDCA, the council identified 414ha of total undeveloped land and removed any areas where housing was already under construction.
Out of the 24,000 units, 15,969 homes could be delivered on lands that are already ‘serviced’ and have the necessary infrastructure including access to public transport and other amenities.
The remaining 8016 homes will be in lands that are ‘serviceable’ – these include areas that have constraints at the moment including places in Rathmichael, Brennanstown Road and parts of Cherrywood.
"We can overcome these constraints – we’ll figure out how to unlock and phase them out. We’re expect funding to be made available through the Department of Housing’s Housing Activation Unit to be able to do this,” said Ms McGauran.
Councillors will be given a next briefing on the progress of the identified land and the planning process in December.