A MASTERPLAN to overhaul Dun Laoghaire Harbour could create as many as 1,000 new jobs.
The highlight of the ambitious €230m plan will be an International Diaspora Centre in place of the dismantled Mail Boat Terminal on Carlisle Pier.
Harbour authorities also want to develop a berthing facility for Next Generation Cruise Ship.
However, some residents are not happy with what they see as the exploitation of the existing local amenity.
Some opposition to the plan is already mounting and a protest march is being planned for Monday to coincide with a meeting of the Harbour Company.
Local architect and chairperson of the Sandycove-Glasthule residents associations Paul O’Callaghan told Herald that “some local people will be unhappy about the commercialisation of a public amenity”.
With Stena HSS fastcraft sailings having reduced from a peak of three to just one sailing a day, the Harbour company is looking to new ways to generate income.
The masterplan will go on public display this Saturday and Sunday from 12 noon to 6pm in the terminal building at the harbour.
Gerry Dunne, the Chief Executive Office of the Harbour Board says “the Masterplan will position Dun Laoghaire Harbour as a marine, leisure and tourism destination of international calibre”.
Some €230m is to be invested in the proposed scheme which hopes to create 1,000 jobs through tourism, marine services and retail over the next 10-15 years.
There is history of confrontation between locals and the harbour authorities over proposed developments in the area.
During the boom, an imposing design for Carlisle Pier by Heneghan Peng Architects was to include a 127 bed hotel, 229 apartments, retail and leisure facilities and a floating stage.
The proposal for a ten storey apartment block surrounded by the low-rise Victorian buildings on the seafront was met with much local opposition.
Similarly a proposal for apartments at the site of the Dun Laoghaire Baths was met with a petition 14,000 signatures against the development in 2004.
This time around a series of public consultations session have already taken place for the proposal and information was offered through a dedicated section of the harbour website and at public meetings.
A survey of people walking the popular East Pier has also taken place.
Minister for Transport, Mr Leo Varadkar has visited the harbour to inspect the model and drawings of the proposed scheme.
The development could tie into a scaled back proposal for nearby Sandycove at the dilapidated baths near the base of the East Pier, as well as proposals for a library near the Royal Marine Hotel.
Dun Laoghaire harbour was first built in the 19th Century response to a maritime disaster in which the 400 sailors lost their lives when they were driven onto rocks between Blackrock and Dun Laoghaire while attempting to navigate out of Dublin Bay.
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