A DRAFT development plan for Co Kildare, which proposes a fundamental change in strategy to accommodate the continuing over spill from Dublin, is to be presented to Kildare county councillors next Monday.
This follows the unprecedented intervention last September by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, calling on the councillors to suspend further land rezoning decisions affecting the towns of Co Kildare until they had first adopted an overall development plan for the county.
Kildare is now the fastest growing county in Ireland, according to the draft, which was prepared by planning consultants Jonathan Blackwell and Associates. Its population, now 134,881, has doubled over the past 30 years, with most of the growth concentrated in the north east, adjacent to Dublin.
The principal aim of the draft, which would replace the current (1985) county plan, is to shift the emphasis of development from the north east to the centre of the county, concentrating on the Naas Newbridge Kilcullen triangle, to achieve the right balance.
"The heart of this strategy will be to redirect the outward movement of population currently flowing along the N4 corridor in the north east in a southward direction", it says. Accordingly, substantial land rezoning in Maynooth, Leixlip and Celbridge would be ruled out.
The continuation of market led development in these three towns would have the effect of joining them to form a "quasi conurbation", according to the draft. It recommends that their separate identities be protected by restricting residential development, particularly in Leixlip.
At the same time, it acknowledges that "massive employment creation" in the north east of the county through Intel, Hewlett Packard and Maynooth College - would have "enormous implications" these three facilities will account for 20,000 students and workers in 10 to 15 years.
Some 5,650 houses were completed between 1991 and 1996, mostly in the north east and centre of the county, and growth is overspilling into unserviced settlements and rural areas.
The overspill is also illustrated by the fact that over 15,000 journeys are made from the county to the capital daily, three quarters of, them by car.
In general, the draft has been welcomed by the North Kildare Alliance for Better Planning. "It is our hope that the proposals will be acceptable to county councillors as a means of providing an alternative to the excessive residential rezonings proposed by them", said a spokesman.
