Why am I hearing about a new town being built at Dunsink?Fingal County Council has published a draft Dunsink Urban Area Plan for a new “urban quarter” of 18,500 homes on what is the largest remaining plot of undeveloped land – more than 400 hectares – inside the M50 in Dublin. It could eventually have a population of more than 46,000, making it bigger than any existing town in the State.Where is Dunsink? About 7km north of O’Connell Street, surrounded by the well-established suburbs of Finglas, Ashtown, Castleknock and Blanchardstown.If all those other areas have been developed why not Dunsink?Dunsink was from the 1970s to the end of the 1990s the location of Dublin’s largest rubbish dump. The landfill closed more than 20 years ago and has since been undergoing remediation. The “restoration and redevelopment” project, designed to decontaminate the site, is due to be completed by 2030.After 2030 does the council plan to build all those homes on the dump?No, the old landfill will possibly never be suitable for housing; instead, the council intends to develop it as a regional park. It’s at the north end of Dunsink and the homes, mostly apartments in blocks up to 15 storeys tall, will be built to the south of it in three phases from east to west.Is there anything there at the moment, apart from the old landfill?There’s the Dunsink Observatory, Teagasc Food Research Centre, golf, football and rugby clubs, and a small number of homes, mostly old farmhouses and Traveller accommodation. There’s clearly a need for housing, so is everyone happy with this plan?No. Few people are opposed to homes being built in the area but there is a lot opposition to the numbers proposed and the exceptionally high densities of up 225 homes per hectare, which would make it as dense as the most built-up parts of Dublin’s docklands. Why is that a problem?The effect on the existing infrastructure, particularly roads, is causing concern. While new roads will have to be built in Dunsink, and the existing small roads expanded, traffic will eventually leave Dunsink and head towards the existing suburbs, all of which are already extremely congested.[ Plan for new town at Dunsink ‘requires €7.3bn water investment’ to proceedOpens in new window ]The council hopes a lot of the new residents will use public transport, but while there is a rail line south of Dunsink and a Luas extension is due to be built to Finglas in the coming years, Dunsink is not expected to get its own Luas line until after 2042.Are there other concerns?Yes, although the council does not propose building on the landfill, people are worried construction nearby might disturb its contents. Locals also fear what might emerge from suspected illegal dumps that may become construction sites.