Housing densities proposed for the proposed new town of Dunsink in north Dublin are “unrealistic”, “excessive” and disregard Government planning guidelines, a past president of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI) has said.
Fingal County Council has drafted plans for 18,500 homes at Dunsink, near what was once the capital’s main landfill. Most of the homes will be apartments, in blocks up to 15 storeys tall.
The Departments of Housing and Transport published a report three years ago which found Dunsink had the potential for “intensive” residential development for up to 7,000 homes.
Tony Reddy, chairman of Reddy Architecture + Urbanism, said densities outlined in the new draft Dunsink Urban Area Plan are “exceptionally high” and were designed for intensive urban regenerations areas such as the Dublin Docklands.
RM Block
Proposed densities of up to 225 dwellings per hectare (dph) were “unrealistic”, Reddy said in a submission to the council, and would make the development of schemes “unviable” in the Irish housing market.
Department of Housing guidelines specify densities of 40 to 80 dph in suburban and “urban extension” sites, and up to 150 dph near transport facilities.
“The draft plan’s proposed density range of 75–225 dwellings per hectare is inappropriate and unviable for Dunsink and is not based on evidence-based national and international best-practice urban design for a new Sustainable Residential Development,” Reddy said.
“Dunsink is a strategic metropolitan site, but it is also an edge/greenfield urban expansion area with big environmental, infrastructural and social infrastructure requirements.
“A blanket or excessive density range of 75–225 dph risks producing an urban form closer to inner metropolitan apartment districts than to the most successful new family-oriented European neighbourhoods.”
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The highest densities proposed in the site were located far from existing public transport services, he said, instead of close to the rail stations south of the site at Ashtown and Navan Road Parkway,
“The urban area plan should prioritise density where high-capacity public transport already exists or is committed. This is provided by the Maynooth commuter rail corridor, and the existing rail stations at Ashtown and Navan Road Parkway, augmented by its approved upgrade under Dart+West,” Reddy said.
“The current plan, in my experience, will be unviable. It will not be supported by private sector funding or development. If the State is expected to underwrite this urban area plan it would merely replicate the failures of Ballymun, Gorbals [Glasgow], Pruitt Igoe [St Louis, US] and other residential failures.”
Reddy urged the council to modify the plan to provide a “more realistic density range”, centred on approximately 40-80 net dph across general neighbourhoods, rising to 80–150 net dph within 500m of public transport, with “higher densities only in exceptional, fully tested” locations.
“This approach would still deliver a substantial exemplary new urban quarter, make efficient use of land within the M50, support public transport and contribute meaningfully to housing supply. It would also be more consistent with Irish viability conditions, European best practice and the creation of a genuinely sustainable community.”
The council notes the planning guidelines support net residential densities in the range of 50-250 dwellings “in proximity to existing or planned high-capacity public transport” services.
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“The plan has been prepared having regard to these guidelines, promoting compact, transit-oriented and design-led residential development consistent with national policy,” it said.
The draft plan states that public transport investment projects including Dart+ West, BusConnects and the Luas Finglas extension “position Dunsink as a highly accessible strategic growth location”.
A Luas extension to Tyrrelstown, which will run through the site, is expected to be developed after 2042.
