Ballsbridge residents have "lost confidence" in Dublin City Council because of the way in which it is dealing with the draft local area plan and the proposed rezoning of nine key sites for higher density mixed-use developments.
The sites include those occupied by Jurys and the Berkeley Court hotels, the former veterinary college on Shelbourne Road and Carrisbrook House at the junction of Northumberland Road and Pembroke Road.
Other targets for rezoning include another site on Shelbourne Road, as well as the stretch of Pembroke Road between Texaco and the US embassy, Merrion Road between the Sweepstakes site and AIB's Bankcentre and the landscaped forecourt of the AIB complex.
Last month, the city council advertised a proposed variation in the Dublin City Development Plan, under which the zoning of these sites would change to facilitate a mix of office, retail and residential uses at densities that could allow for high-rise buildings.
In a submission on the council's proposals, a coalition of 14 residents' associations expressed surprise at the move, saying there had been no mention of such large-scale rezoning at earlier public consultation meetings on the draft Ballsbridge plan.
"When we subsequently became aware of the advertisement placed in the newspaper on April 19th, we could only conclude that the manner of proceeding with the whole rezoning process was designed not to openly inform the public, but to confuse and deceive us.
"We had been of the opinion from the start that the [ local area plan] was nothing more than window-dressing for the rezoning proposals", says their submission, which queries the legality of the council's twin-track approach. "We now believe that it was also a smokescreen".
Council officials maintain the sites need to be rezoned in order to permit mixed-use schemes and also to control the amount of development that might be permitted on each site. But the residents insist the current zoning designations are quite adequate.
"Rather than providing what the residents had hoped would be neighbourhood shops [driven out as a result of intensification of office use], the change in zoning would allow for huge shopping areas . . . and would [also] allow for vastly increased office use".
The submission also queries the council's contention that a mix of residential (including family-sized apartments) and retail uses are desirable.
"It is our view that Irish parents do not want to raise their families in the middle of an urban centre, or over a shop", it states.
Backed by 1,000 signatures, the submission also notes that "very intense development in close proximity to residential conservation areas would completely contravene the conservation objectives" of the city plan.
Referring to the listed mid-18th century brick building on Merrion Road, beside the Horse Show House pub, as the most significant in the area, it states residents found it "staggering" that the site it occupies is also proposed for rezoning to facilitate mixed-use development.
