Over the past thirty years, Lucan has experienced relentless and increasingly unbalanced development, with large tracts of land rezoned for housing long before essential infrastructure, transport capacity, or public amenities were in place. This sustained pattern of over‑development has already eroded the quality of life for many residents. Access to natural amenities has been drastically reduced, traffic congestion has reached intolerable levels, and public transport provision has failed to keep pace with population growth. The continued expansion of Adamstown and Clonburris—both still far from completion—has only intensified these pressures.
In this context, I am submitting my views on Proposed Variation No. 2, which seeks to identify further land for extensive residential rezoning across the county, including additional sites in and around Lucan. The scale of what is proposed raises serious concerns about sustainability, environmental protection, and the capacity of already‑strained infrastructure to absorb yet more growth.
(1) Objection to the Proposed Rezoning at St. Edmundsbury
I strongly oppose the proposed rezoning of the St. Edmundsbury lands, which are currently designated as “high amenity.” These lands are one of the few remaining natural buffers protecting the character, biodiversity, and environmental quality of the area. They have served as an essential amenity in an area that has experienced huge population growth, and form a critical part of the green corridor leading into the Liffey Valley Strategic Amenity Area (SAA).
(2) Additional Rezoning Across Lucan
Future plans to rezone land in the adjoining areas e.g. Foxhunter and other sites would several thousand more housing units to an area that has already absorbed far more than its fair share of regional growth. Lucan’s population has expanded rapidly while the services that make daily life workable — roads, buses, schools, healthcare, green space, community facilities — have not kept pace. The result is a community under significant infrastructural strain.
Residents are already living with long commutes, gridlocked roads, overcrowded public transport, and shrinking access to natural amenities. Adding further large‑scale development without first addressing these deficits risks deepening social isolation, reducing mobility for older people and families, and eroding the sense of community that depends on shared spaces, functioning services, and the ability to move safely and efficiently through the area.
ational policy has acknowledged that past development patterns created sprawl and undermined quality of life. Lucan is a clear example of this: housing was delivered at scale, but the infrastructure that supports human wellbeing was left behind. Continuing to rezone land now — before existing commitments in Adamstown and Clonburris are even completed — would repeat these mistakes and intensify the pressures residents already face.
Without a shift in approach, the lived experience for many people in Lucan will continue to deteriorate: longer travel times, reduced access to nature, overstretched services, and a community forced to absorb growth without the supports that make neighbourhoods healthy and sustainable.
Objection to the Proposed Rezoning at St. Edmundsbury