Green spaces on up to 20 housing estates in south Co Dublin are being targeted by property developers because they have never been formally handed over to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.
In one case, believed to be the first of its kind, Dewdrop Properties Ltd is seeking planning permission to develop 22 apartments and 30 houses on part of a green space in the Leopardstown Oaks estate on Brewery Road.
The company is being advised by Mr Gay McCarron, former chief planning officer of Dublin city and county, who is now acting as a planning consultant, and by Mr Bill Lacy, a former Dublin Corporation official in charge of urban renewal.
The four-acre site at Leopardstown Oaks is zoned "open space" and was so conditioned by a planning permission granted in 1962. The council's parks department has been maintaining it since 1979 and it was included in the parks by-laws in 1996.
Early last year council officials believed that ownership of the site, known as Esso Field because of its proximity to the oil company's offices, would be claimed by Ballymore Homes Ltd, the property development group run by Mr Seán Mulryan.
With extensive interests in Dublin and London, its website says: "At the heart of Ballymore's success lies its talent for acquiring 'difficult' land and buildings that do not have planning permission". However, it was Dewdrop Properties that made the application.
In a written reply to Cllr Fiona O'Malley, a Progressive Democrat candidate in Dún Laoghaire, council officials said transfer of legal title to the site "could not be effected" as the company involved had been dissolved in 1989.
This company, Foxrock and Brewery (1973) Ltd, had previously signed a "deed of dedication" of the site to the council, which later provided tennis courts there for use by a local tennis club. But its lease has since expired, according to Mr McCarron."We're happy enough to consolidate the tennis club at its original size with proper legal title and dedicate a further 20 per cent of the site as open space in return for the right to develop the rest of it for reasonably high-density housing."
Mr McCarron, who retired as chief planning officer of Dublin city and county in 1994, said he had made a point of not involving himself in any negotiations on Dewdrop Properties' planning application for 11 duplexes, 11 apartments and 30 houses.
Permission for the scheme was refused by the county council, in part because it did not believe that Dewdrop had sufficient legal title to carry out the proposed development, and the company is currently appealing this decision to An Bord Pleanála.
Meanwhile, a schedule of open spaces which are covered by deeds of dedication but not yet legally transferred to the county council include housing estates in Dundrum, Sandyford, Ballybrack, Shankill, Clonskeagh, Foxrock, Cabinteely and Stillorgan.
Of the 26 cases, all dating from the 1980s, transfer of title has been completed in only six. The others are "at various stages of inter-party correspondence and negotiation", according to the council, which blamed legal delays for the "slow progress".
Council officials conceded that a deed of dedication "does not transfer ownership or title of the land to the council". However, they said the absence of title "does not affect the intent of the deed of dedication and its linkage to the planning permission".
But Cllr O'Malley said there was a danger of developers "hijacking public property" with the aid of former senior planning officials "who, upon retirement, quite legitimately set up planning consultancies and are in great demand from developers".
There was a strong moral imperative that land which was intended for public ownership should be confirmed as such, if necessary by legislation, especially after being "enjoyed as a public amenity" for more than 20 years, she added.
