Wood Quay and Camden Yard (part 3)

In part 1 and part 2 I talk about Dublin City Council's purchase of Camden Yard and its concept-of-a-plan for what they are going to do with the Wood Quay site. I say concept-of-a-plan, because to call it a plan implies actual planning, with a business case, cost-benefit analysis, identified risks etc.

I submitted the question below to Dublin City Council to find out if any due diligence had been done to assess risks relating to redeveloping the Wood Quay site based on what we already know about its important archaeological heritage.

To ask the Chief Executive to provide a report detailing DCC's due diligence done relating to archaeological risks of further development of the Wood Quay site. Specifically, report is to outline any engagement or correspondence with archaeological experts (either within DCC or external) to assess legal risks relating to breaking ground on the archaeologically significant Wood Quay site again.

The Chief Executive replied as follows:

The Chief Executive recognises the archaeological significance of the Wood Quay site and the importance of ensuring that any future consideration of its redevelopment fully reflects statutory obligations and heritage protections.

At this stage, no redevelopment proposal for the Wood Quay site has been brought forward and no decisions have been made regarding refurbishment, demolition or further construction. As a result, no sitespecific archaeological due diligence or risk assessment relating to redevelopment has yet been undertaken.

Any future consideration of redevelopment at Wood Quay would require a comprehensive programme of assessment and would be subject to all applicable planning and heritage legislation. 

These matters would form part of a structured process with Elected Members before any proposal could be advanced.

As previously outlined, the future of the Wood Quay site will be considered through the Council’s established governance processes, with full engagement with Elected Members at the appropriate stages, and no action will be taken that would preempt those processes.

So the Chief Executive is telling us that since there are no detailed plans, they don't need to consider the risk that the redevelopment of Wood Quay might not be viable due to complications relating to the site. But part 2 of this series shows that the council did present us with a concept-of-a-plan, deliberately designed to convey the impression that they come up with a viable public housing use of the site.

The elected members of Dublin City Council will have an opportunity to ask questions of the Chief Executive at tonight's council meeting, after which I'll write the next part of this series.