“It started out as a football project and it's turned into a game changer for the area and surrounding areas,” says John Hayden, the chairman of Belvedere Football Club.
Requests for a school warden were previously turned down because it was considered too dangerous, said a councillor. In recent times, two other schools have been told the same.
Those proposing the move said the council had agreed to a plan with 768 homes, but now Bartra is pursuing a denser, taller development. Those opposing it said it couldn’t legally be done.
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council decided in 2019 not to build housing for Travellers on the site, saying it planned to sell it. Now it’s back to housing again.
It’s a problem the government will have to navigate as it rolls out a promise to introduce minimum BER ratings for private rentals by 2025, “where feasible”.
Dublin City Council would sell the site to developer Glenveagh, which would agree to build 853 homes there, which would all be social and affordable, say officials. But what does affordable mean?
It examined deals done between 2016 and 2019 and found that councils generally got a good deal, but that there wasn’t a rigorous, standardised process.
They rezoned the site from industrial to residential for an affordable housing proposal. Now, the land’s more valuable and the landowner is looking to sell it.
The appearance of the building and surrounding site are bringing down the area, some councillors say. A representative of the owners says they’ve tried to maintain it.
