Santry needs more than just more apartments, residents say, objecting to rezoning of Shanowen Lands

“No rezoning until Santry gets a plan,” said the sign on the green lamppost outside the Shanowen Road Garda Station on Monday afternoon.

Two days earlier, this location, known by many as the “Shanowen Lands” had hosted a protest by Santry Forum, a residents’ group for people living in the Whitehall-Santry area.

They had filed out to express opposition to Dublin City Council’s plan to change the zoning on the site from Z6 (“Employment and Enterprise”) to Z1 (“Sustainable Residential Neighbourhoods”).

The council is planning to do this to meet demands from the central government to rezone more lands for housing. 

In response to these demands, it looked at its residentially zoned land and concluded that it had enough to meet the government’s targets – but also committed to rezoning a bit more, to create some additional “headroom”.

The site on the Shanowen Road was proposed for rezoning as part of a strategic review of lands, which has made similar suggestions for six other landbanks throughout the city, a council spokesperson said on Tuesday.

These proposed rezonings, along with the rezonings and creation of masterplans for Broombridge-Hamilton, published in January, and Kylemore, could bring in 24,000 homes, the spokesperson said.

The 4.3 acre Shanowen Lands site is publicly owned, says a report prepared by Santry Forum, and its occupants are the red brick Garda station as well as a long-grey warehouse with a corrugated iron sawtooth roof.

It’s an industrial unit that is worth retaining and reusing, says Frank Keoghan, a member of Santry Forum, speaking by phone on Tuesday afternoon. “It’s quite a visionary piece of work, very contemporary.”

Ideally, members of the Forum would like to see this redeveloped for community or cultural use, said chairperson John Nolan on the same call. “We would recycle any material.”

There are already a huge number of new housing developments in the area, he says. “The priority to just build units has not been matched or balanced with social infrastructure.”

They need a local development plan, he says. “And that is at the forefront of us objecting to rezoning without a plan to rebalance that.”

Making a plan

Dublin City Council launched its consultation on its plan to vary the city development plan on 31 March.

This proposes to change the zoning at seven sites – including lands in Finglas Business Park, Greenmount Industrial Estate in Harold’s Cross and Fumbally Lane – from employment and enterprise to residential, sustainable mixed-use and Strategic Development and Regeneration Areas, the variation report says.

As of Tuesday evening, 30 different groups or individuals have made submissions, 26 of which are directly related to the Shanowen Lands.

These consistently cite excessive development, traffic congestion, and a scarcity of community infrastructure, with a submission by one Thomas Fleming saying “there are insufficient schools and creches that are already struggling greatly to tend the huge numbers of children”.

The report on the proposed variation to the development plan has also put forward the idea of preparing a framework plan for Santry which would both provide for new housing and support the suburb.

But the problem here is that rezoning the Shanowen Lands before there is a plan, would open up the door “in an unrestricted fashion” for a development of up to 1,000 apartments on the site, Nolan says. “Santry has taken its fair share of residential developments.”

Right now, residents are worried that a lot of apartments have already been built in the Santry area without supporting infrastructure or community amenities, said Fine Gael Councillor Declan Flanagan on Monday. “They’re very piecemeal, and there’s no joined up thinking for Santry.”

A local area plan could identify what the area needs, he says. “Such as a medical centre, a creche, employment opportunities, some digital hub, innovation centres.”

Santry Forum has put forward their own vision of a community quarter for the area, Flanagan says.

This report has proposed redeveloping the Shanowen Lands as a mixed-use quarter, with both Z6 and Z1 zoning, it says.

The sawtooth-roofed industrial warehouse could be adapted and reused as a digital hub centre for Santry, including co-working spaces, private offices, meeting rooms and a communal kitchen with a conference centre and cafe, it says.

It suggests retaining a smaller Garda station and creating a residential block consisting of a new eight-storey tower and two five-storey residential terraces, which would be intended for essential workers, step-down homes and homes for independent living.

Meanwhile, buildings to the west of the site, including one currently used by the Revenue, could be repurposed for childcare, a medical centre, artists’ studios, a gallery and rehearsal spaces, it says.

One of the industrial units could be done up to create a multi-purpose community hall, it says.

Here, they also proposed the inclusion of 23 one-bedroom units, it says.

Third, the report has suggested turning a piece of the site that is used as the Garda Carriage Office and a car compound into an eco enterprise sector alongside an area for more homes.

The proposed new homes, of which there could be around 200, would be deliberately dispersed throughout the site, Nolan says. “It is approximately 50 houses per hectare.”

They commissioned an architect to draw up the report, he says. “And we’re trying to balance out a usable space destination that has a variety of different services that would encourage footfall in the site and which would be a community space.”

Getting a seat at the table

Independent Councillor John Lyons raised the Santry Forum’s opposition to the rezoning proposal at the very start of the North Central Area Committee meeting on Monday.

He and Sinn Féin Councillor Edel Moran had requested that the committee allow the Forum to make a presentation on the Shanowen Lands during the meeting, Lyons told the room.

But due to a tight schedule, they couldn’t be facilitated, said Fianna Fáil Councillor Daryl Barron, the committee’s chair. “I cannot set a precedent where some people would be allowed onto the area committee and some wouldn’t be.”

If he could get the time to bring them into the committee between now and June, however, he would, he said.

They had a good conversation with the group prior to the meeting, he said. “But, I think it’s about bringing in the planners and having a conversation about this.”

Getting a meeting in May or June isn’t much use to Santry Forum because the consultation on the variations to the development plan closes on 28 April, Nolan says.

A spokesperson for the council said that the Planning Department met with relevant stakeholders and councillors on these lands, including members of the Santry Forum, on 25 March.

“The consultation process has been us going in and pitching to planners who basically weren’t interested,” Nolan said. “And pitching it not to a public meeting, but a private meeting.”

Is any further engagement with Santry Forum planned? A spokesperson for the council said they will continue to engage with relevant stakeholders throughout the planning process.