The insistence of Meath county councillors on rezoning 250 acres of land at Clonee for a "Gateway to Meath" business park would complete a major industrial concentration on the edge of Dublin, stretching for 10 km along the N3.
This concentration, which would be up to 2.5 km wide in places, would include Ballycoolin Business Park, Blanchardstown Industrial Park, North West Business Park and Damastown Technology Park, which includes the huge IBM plant, as well as some smaller schemes.
The 250-acre site beside Clonee village, currently 19 fields in pasture, is owned by Lark Properties Ltd, which wants to cover it with 2.5 million sq ft of high-tech office buildings and manufacturing units to suit firms operating 24 hours a day, with staff numbering in the thousands.
According to local residents, the land "has not been suitable for any sort of building over the last 20 years or so because of lack of sewerage and water facilities, but mostly because of poor drainage". Indeed, these were among the reasons cited for rejecting earlier housing plans by Lark.
But now Meath County Council has got together with Lark to promote the same site for the proposed "Gateway to Meath Business Campus" - ignoring the important fact that it is located in a designated green belt under the Greater Dublin Area Strategic Planning Guidelines.
The SPGs identify Clonee as requiring special protection from Dublin's overspill and, instead, target Navan as Meath's major growth centre. However, county councillors claim industrial development has not taken off in Navan due to lack of infrastructure and other deficiencies.
What worries local people, in particular, is the traffic impact of such a large development. They point out that the Dunshaughlin-Dublin stretch of the N3 is already "one long car park in the mornings and evenings", with traffic on the way into Dublin backed up from Clonee by 8.30 a.m.
A draft area action plan, compiled by Lark Properties and Meath County Council last October, refers to a number of proposals to upgrade the road network in the surrounding area. However, it concedes that the nearest rail station, at Clonsilla, is 3 km away.
The developers have sought to allay local fears about flooding by saying that storm water would be held in ponds on the site as part of its landscaping scheme. As for the lack of sewerage in the area, they say this could be resolved subject to agreement with Fingal County Council.
