Chapter 2, Planning for Growth

The failure to provide a clear and sustainable national housing strategy since the mid nineties has led to chronic housing/residential accomodation shortage, which has over the past five years, quickly become unaffordable for the average wage earner.

The problem of supply has not been caused by a lack of appropriately zoned land. Many thousand of residentially zoned lands are available in this part of Fingal.

The housing shortage and lack of affordability at this present time has numerous causes feeding into the equation - some external, some due to developers seeking to maximise profit - some down to the failure of Government policy( not building the necessary infrastructure to support development etc.) , or the absence of appropriate laws /regulations required to protect the home owner / tenant.

The provision of co living developments, high rise apartment complexes - mostly comprising of mainly small, one / two bed apartments , with little amenities within their complexes. Also under providing for car parking spaces etc leading to off site parking .

The proliferation of the foregoing type development is anti community as most of the units within those complexes will be occupied by those who are transistory and who will not put down roots or participate within the wider community life. My fear is this type of development will become tomorrows suburban social 'black spots'.  

To sustain communities we must move towards a planning for life concept. This will involve the design of new communities with a mix of residential types which recognises the variation in household formations ( single - couples - families - extended families etc.) and allows the adaptation and transistion from young age- middle age - old age - supported living etc.. Such developments will consist predominantly of traditional houses( own grounfd level door) , rear open space, and quality green public open space within the development .It does not mean placing high rise apartments in the midst of such developments, but rather two, possible three story apartments , which should comprise no more than 20% of the total number of residential units. The predominant advantage to adopting such a development philospophy is that you allow a person to remain within their community by moving from a large family house to a smaller house / apartment. By doing this you helpto preserve the' community glue' and help to maintain the social bond between individuals and their friends / families.

I do not suscribe to developing the concept of a car free community in the greater Blanchardstown area. We do not have a well connected, affordable,frquent and reliable public transport system here. Bus connect will only serve one corridor of our extensive community. Example - the 37 Bus route( not a bus connect route) serves thousands of residents in Dublin 15 , yet only runs every half hour off peak. The frequency will not improve in the foreseeable future. It is proposed that this route will drop passengers off south of the city centre once the bus connect route is up and running. To get to the airport via public transport would require at least two hours travel time and at least two busus.That is unsustainable transport planning in action!!

For the majority of people a car is a requirement to live in The Dublin 15 suburbs. The reduction or elimination of car parking is not feasible nor desireable for the reasons outlined above and more. I had a family medical emergency last year, not ambulance critical, but required a trip to the hospital at 3a.m. ...how would we have made that journey by public transport at that hour ,even taxis are hard to come by at that time.

Maintain a reasonable standard of car parking spaces per development and recognise the realities of modern living requiremets.

Air quality and noise pollution are two environmental 'killers'. Each year in Ireland thousands suffer ill health and sadly, many die due to effects of long term exposure to excessive air and, or, noise pollution impacts. Poor air quality is killing 1300 people per annum in Ireland. These issues are not taken seriously enough by our local or national governments. 

In Dublin 15 we have a paucity of air and noise monitoring stations. Those we do have are badly situated and most are not near known sources of high generation of air and noise pollution. To my knowledge the levels of air  and noise pollution generated by the M50 at the divide of the Park avenue and Laurel Lodge areas is above acceptable levels and to date no action plan has ever been implemented to bring those readings within permitted safe levels. People are suffering ill health, dying and yet no one acts!

Adopt a more vigourous action plan to monitor and remedy unsafe air quality breaches, particularly in the vicinity of transport related air quality and noise pollution locations( roads, airport, rail, industrial). Ensure that domestic residences are not burning 'dirty' fuels by appointing inspectors to monitor neighbourhoods were there is a capacity to burn 'dirty' fuels.

To support climate action in a practical way I recommend as earlier indicated, that our Council adopts a proactive management of its green areas of responsibilities, rather than the largely passive management policy that currently is in vogue( leaving grass uncut, rather than actively planting out an area with different indigenous grasses, pollinator plants etc.).

Educate residents of Fingal why the replacement of decorative planting with ''pollinator friendly'' planting would be more sustainable. Why an aggreesive native tree,shrub and flora planting is sensible and would greatly assist sustaining and improving our bio diversity.

In my estate we have a two/threehundred metre strecth of magnificent native woodland,unique to this part of residential Fingal, which has had n management in over twenty years. Sadly in the number of  years it has been degraded and damaged due to the actions of individuals dumping waste, damaging the trees themselves and the immediate surrounding them. Only the council can deal with these types of issues to save the trees for future generations of reidents and , most importantly, the animals and palnts that live there.

Set up and establish a series of allotments throughout Fingal and in particular the Dublin 15 area, for which there is a high demand for them. See the submission FIN - C 453 - 177 , which I strongly support and clearly outlines the benfits of allotments and community gardens.

Ensure that Dublin Airport operations do not breach noise pollution requirements with regard to residential, medical, eductional and recreational facilties.

Establish numerous , appropriately dispersed noise monitoring stations for existing or planned residential ,educational,medical developments. Where the noise levels are excessive development shall be banned from those areas.

DAA to fund the placement ,operation of such facilities. DAA to fund noise abatement measures.

Night time flights from new runway to be restricted to preserve the residential amenities of affected residences.