Aerotropolis Takes Off?
City Wide News North West edition 13 - 26 Sep 2006

The thousands of acres of cutaway bogland, worth little in development terms and lying just miles from Dublin, has the potential to become a brand new city - Aerotropolis, a city developed around a new airport - according to the theory of a leading figure in international aviation economics.

With many economic commentators, domestic and international, warning of the serious implications of our overheating property market, a shortage on the supply side, not of houses, but of land for housing, has been identified as the fundamental problem. Building an airport on this landbank of thousands of acres of isolated, virtually worthless cutaway bogland available not very far from Dublin would make thousands of acres of land viable for housing, according to the theories of aviation
economics expert, John Kasarda. Kasarda believes that, "airports will shape business location and urban development in this century as much as motorways and roads did in the last century and railroads in the previous one." For him, accessibility, rather than location, is the new byword of successful urban development.

Developing an airport on such a site would render the previously unattractive land suddenly prime for development, solving both the need for more land for housing and serving Dublin's growing aviation needs without further expansion of Dublin airport, according to one north Dublin community group. If it was decided to build a new
state-of-the-art airport on such land, a new city could be developed. This type of city, what Kasarda calls an Aerotropolis, could all be designed so that residential communities are not put under flightpaths or too near runways, according to UPROAR, the Portmarnock based group which is vigorously opposing Dublin Airport Authority's plans to develop a second runway.

"It makes much more economic sense to build such an airport than to continue the unsustainable development of an increasingly inaccessible Dublin Airport in an already very congested North County Dublin, where land is worth €2 million an acre," according to a group spokesperson.

Of further advantage is that this land is stateowned, meaning that social housing could be easily and cheaply provided, according to UPROAR, who also predict that industrial development would be easily attracted to such an accessible site so that residents would find jobs within easy commuting distance. "These and other spin-off benefits will not arise from the continued uneconomic development of Dublin Airport.
At the same time, if a second parallel runway is not built at Dublin Airport, thousands of acres of very valuable land, public and private, would be released for development at Dublin Airport and under the new flight-path that will not then be put over existing communities. It is a win-win option," says group spokesperson, Matt Harley.

Whatever the outcome of the Oral Hearing into the planned second runway for Dublin Airport, both the runway and the continued expansion of the airport are certain to be election issues, Dublin north householders are warning On Micheal Martin's recent agreement on an RTE Radio 1 discussion programme that alternatives to further expanding the existing airport may have to be considered in the future*, Matt Harley of UPROAR queries, "do he and his government have the foresight to think the unthinkable, and the courage to make it happen?" If they fail, he says, does the alternative team have what it takes?

*During a discussion with Friends First Chief Economist, Jim Power on 'The Business', RTE Radio 1 on Sunday 3rd September, Micheal Martin commented, "I mean, you may need a second airport, in terms of the southern side or dealing with the rest of Leinster and so on."