The government have raised the housing targets for the coming years
People will sell up and move out due to traffic problems
“…they’re going to sell up and move out of South Dublin because the traffic is so bad.”
Worries have been expressed by local officials after the Government raised the housing targets for the coming years.
The revised housing targets for South Dublin are 3,270 dwellings per annum from this year to 2024 and 2,414 per annum from 2035 until 2040.
South Dublin is expected to fall short by just under 20 per cent with the new targets in mind and the council are looking at rezoning land for housing to combat this shortfall.
Councillor Eoin Ó Broin believes that these numbers can be achieved by the council in the coming years and the gap can be bridged.
Cllr Ó Broin told The Echo: “There’s lots of contact from landowners asking for their lands [to be considered].
“There’s some small landowners and then there’s some big high-profile ones – maybe the highest profile one would be Hibernia REIT, who own the land between Tallaght and Clondalkin…
“Another high-profile one is Heinz. Heinz built Cherrywood…they would like to zone an area in Liffey Valley, where they say they could put about over 1,000 apartments.”
The Clondalkin councillor also stated that he hopes that around Newcastle and Rathcoole are deemed off-limits in these discussions.
This is down to traffic issues in the area that are yet to be solved and, Cllr Ó Broin feels, will not be solved anytime soon.
Councillor Darragh Adelaide echoed concerns of Newcastle residents, who have contacted him on multiple occasions and asked him to tell the council not to zone any more land in the area.
Cllr Adelaide continued: “It’s coming from not a place that ‘we don’t want more people’ or ‘we don’t understand there’s a housing crisis.’
“It’s coming from people who – I think a lot of us met them, a couple of hundred people together – where they can’t find any school places for their kids or there’s poor public transport.”
The Clondalkin Councillor also asked for confirmation of a commitment from the National Transport Authority to expand transport to areas that may be rezoned.
He noted his concern that rezoning any land near places such as Newcastle, Rathcoole and Saggart without any kind of commitment from the Government on issues the council cannot vote on would cause chaos for workers of all kinds down the line.
Councillor Francis Timmons discussed the traffic in the region and made clear that it must be considered in any rezoning discussions.
Cllr Timmons said: “I’ve had a significant amount of people that said they’re going to sell up and move out of South Dublin because the traffic is so bad.
“I absolutely realise we have a housing crisis, but I just think these are genuine things we need to consider.”
A special council meeting is set to take place in the coming weeks to discuss the issue of meeting the updated targets.
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.
