Council votes to protect Newlands Farm lands from strategic development

At a special meeting of the County Council, elected members voted in support of a motion relating to the 100-acre Newlands Farm/Whitehall Lands to ensure that these lands are not considered a strategic, long-term development site.

Following a vote between councillors, a total of 19 votes were cast in favour of supporting the motion, with 16 against and three abstentions, allowing the Council to maintain the current zoning of the lands, RU, EE, OS.

This decision came only four months after the proposal to designate it as a future SDA was rejected.

At this week’s meeting, Councillor Dunne called on her fellow councillors to support the motion, saying:

“Please consider this land the way you have considered pieces of land over in your own constituency. I did mention it, and I’m going to repeat it again: we need to be protecting environmental and ecological, highly ecological valued land in the county.”

The well-known site by Newland’s Cross and between Tallaght and Clondalkin is a large stretch of green that separates the two communities and is currently designated for agricultural use.

Per the Chief Executive’s report on the latest round of public consultation regarding the lands, ‘Proposed Material Alterations to Proposed Variation No. 2 to the South Dublin County Development Plan 2022-2028’, it is noted that Hibernia Real Estate Group “objects” to the council’s vote to reject the proposal and “seeks the reinstatement” of these plans.

In June, the proposal was rejected, and this came five years after plans to develop the area into a site with 3,500 homes were shelved.

Hibernia Real Estate Group acquired the Newlands Farm site just over a decade ago and has been interested in delivering developments there.

The owners had lodged an unsuccessful submission during the consultation process for the initial version of the 2022-28 county development plan, seeking to rezone the 144-acre greenfield site from agricultural to residential use.

At the same meeting, Councillors voted for lands at Finnstown Castle to be rezoned for housing after the casting vote of Mayor Francis Timmons brought about a tie of 19 votes for each.

Lands at Coldcut Road were also voted on at this meeting, which saw councillors vote to rezone the land for housing, with 20 voted to 18, with two abstentions.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme