Dublin residents have protested against a final vote on the controversial rezoning of “ecologically unique” land due to take place on Monday.
A demonstration against the move was held in Lucan, west Dublin, on Saturday, calling on local councillors to vote against the proposal.
The Save St Edmundsbury Protest Committee held a walk to oppose the rezoning of the St Edmundsbury site in the Liffey valley, owned by businessmen John Magnier and JP McManus.
The land is currently zoned as “high amenity” due to its environmental and natural amenity value.
Sites at Finnstown Castle, between Lucan and Adamstown, and at Coldcut Road, south of the Liffey Valley shopping centre, have also been proposed for rezoning.
Committee member and Independent councillor on South Dublin County Council Helen Farrell said it was not about “refusing housing in our area”.
“Rezoning has to happen in some places but the lands at St Edmundsbury are ecologically unique,” she said.
She described the area as a “very ancient landscape and an ancient farmland and the two landscapes kind of work together.
“So there’s a very rich biodiversity and we really want to see these lands saved.”
Residential rezoning for the area has been proposed on numerous occasions over recent decades but refused.
Farrell believes efforts should be focused on “getting high density housing into the city centre on some of the vacant properties that have laid vacant for decades”.
Dereliction needed to be tackled, she argued, rather than building on “highly fertile agricultural lands in the middle of a food crisis and a climate crisis”.
Councillors previously voted against rezoning the land. Now, protesters are calling on them “to vote against residential rezoning, as they did the last time”, Farrell said.
A final vote is scheduled for Monday.
“We really want the Government to notice that this should be part of the Liffey Valley Park going forward and this is what we should leave for future generations.”
Saturday’s protest walk began outside the main entrance gates at St Edmundsbury and finished at the village green in Lucan.
The Irish Times previously reported that the council’s chief executive, Colm Ward, had proposed rezoning the three sites, which combined could accommodate more than 1,700 homes.
It followed an edict last summer from Minister for Housing James Browne that all local authorities must provide significant additional land for housing.
More than 1,600 submissions opposed the rezoning of the St Edmundsbury site.