Support for omission of Ref no. 3.
I strongly support the decision of the elected members of South Dublin County Council not to proceed with the proposed residential rezoning of the lands at Finnstown castle, Lucan, under Proposed Variation No. 2 to the South Dublin County Development Plan 2022–2028.
SDCC has a responsibility to ensure there is sufficient land available to meet Government housing targets under the revised National Planning Framework (NPF). I fully support that objective.
The Council's own figures show that the revised National Planning Framework (NPF) baseline housing requirement has already been met. The overall package of proposed rezonings provides approximately 30% more residential capacity than the Government's baseline requirement. Because of this, there is no planning necessity to rezone the lands at Finnstown Castle in order to comply with national housing policy.
These lands make a highly important contribution to the ecology, ancient landscape, biodiversity, Green Infrastructure and the visual amenity of Finnstown and the greater South Lucan/Adamstown area.
For these reasons, I respectfully ask that the elected members' decision be upheld and that amendment ref no.3 be removed.
In addition I and fellow residents would like to propose a view of what we would like for the grounds of Finnstown castle to become. We propose to have an SLO added now or to the next County Development Plan. We suggest that SDCC pursue taking the lands of Finnstown Castle into public ownership with a view to extending Tandy’s Lane Park facilities for the residents of Adamstown and Lucan. This would provide a connected green space from Lucan to Adamstown and additional Park facilities for the increased rezoning in Adamstown. Our vision of the grounds are outlined overleaf.
