Councillors from Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, the Greens and Sinn Féin have voted to dezone residential land earmarked for hundreds of new homes near Dundalk, in a move raising questions about their parties’ election promises to tackle the housing crisis.
The Louth County Council vote was proposed by Green Party general election candidate Marianne Butler and supported by five Sinn Féin councillors and three each from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. Three Independent councillors also backed the motion to rezone the “new residential” land at Haggardstown as “strategic reserve” land.
The vote was taken on November 6th, the same day Taoiseach Simon Harris declared he was calling the general election for November 29th.
With the campaign entering its final week, the need to boost housing supply is a dominant theme in manifestos. But the vote will block plans by Glenveagh, one of Ireland’s largest builders, to construct 500 homes near a town designated a regional growth centre.
“The reason for this amendment was that the residential zoning on these lands does not follow a sequential pattern of development and there are infrastructure deficiencies in the area,” said the council voting record.
“Councillors across the political divide voted to dezone this land because it lacked the necessary water infrastructure,” Ms Butler said. Privately, other councillors who backed the vote cited similar water concerns.
It is understood Glenveagh already has an Irish Water connection agreement for 200 homes on the site.
[ Has Fingal County Council found a solution to Ireland’s housing crisis?Opens in new window ]
The vote was in defiance of a recommendation from Louth County Council temporary chief executive Joe McGuinness, who has said current zoning was “appropriate and should be retained”.
Glenveagh, which had no comment on the vote, already has consent to build 483 new homes on the lands under planning permission which will soon expire. However, the company wanted a bigger development. After its application for 500 homes on the same site was refused earlier this year, Glenveagh was preparing another 500-unit application on the basis of the old zoning. The new zoning means it cannot proceed.
The Fianna Fáil councillors’ votes came despite Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien writing to all local authority chief executives asking to them to identify additional lands for rezoning. “Individual zoning decisions in each area are undertaken by local elected members, not nationally,” the party said.
Sinn Féin councillor Kevin Meenan said: “We made the decision on the night based on the conversations we had as a group of councillors and we looked at it from a proper planning and sustainable point of view, like we did them all.”
There was no Fine Gael comment.
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