LAST week one of the biggest property developers in Ireland, Sean Dunne, unveiled his plans for the huge seven acre site he owns in the center of Ballsbridge, Dublin's most exclusive resi- dential area. The plans include a 37-story tower that looks like it might have been floated in from downtown Manhattan.

It's a diamond shaped, glass fronted building that looks pretty spectacular in the architectural drawings. But it's surrounded on all sides by leafy roads of magnificent Victorian redbrick houses, large residences which are among the finest and most expensive in the city. And the contrast between the two looks weird to the point of being surreal.

Needless to say the residents in the area 16 groups of them are up in arms. They say the development is completely wrong for Ballsbridge. The ambience of the area will be destroyed.

But Dunne and his supporters say that this is the future. Dublin has to go up.

We must not be afraid to reach for the sky, as they have done in other cities like New York and London. We have got to get over our blinkered view of keeping everything the way it used to be.

So a major debate has started about what Dublin should look like in the future, about whether we should allow high rise buildings and, if so, how many and where.

On one side are the developers and Dunne is not the only one and on the other side are the citizens, not wanting to hinder progress but also not wanting to lose the essential character of what in parts is still one of Europe's most beautiful old cities.

The Ballsbridge site Dunne wants to put the 37-story tower on are the adjoining plots now occupied by two hotels, Jurys (now closed) and the Berkeley Court (still open). He bought both, paying an incredible *54 million an acre for them.

The hotels were still successful. The Berkeley is probably the poshest hotel in the city. Jurys is well known to armies of American tourists who have stayed there over the years.

But building land in Dublin is now so precious that the hotels and their carparks are much more valuable as construction sites. And building land in Ballsbridge is the most desirable in the entire city.

The tower, to be called One Berkeley Court (what is it with these British names?), has attracted most attention, but it will be surrounded by other blocks, including an 11-story apartment block and a 15-story embassy complex as well as other lower ones. It is, in short, a massive development in the center of a traditional residential area.

And it's not the only one. Watching in the wings are two other developers, Ray Grehan and Bernard McNamara.

Grehan owns a nearby site in Ballsbridge once occupied by the Veterinary College, and McNamara owns the Burlington Hotel and an adjoining office block. Both have plans for major high rise developments. Plus there are a few other nearby sites in the center of Ballsbridge owned by other developers.

So what happens with Sean Dunne's master plan announced last week will have a much wider influence than just his 37-story tower. It could start a general trend of allowing skyscrapers in Dublin's redbrick heartland.

Dunne says that the characterization of Ballsbridge as simply a residential area is mistaken and points to the 30-plus embassies in the area, the RDS showgrounds, the headquarters of the country's biggest bank, various hotels and, of course, the rugby stadium.

And that is true. It's not just residential. But the embassies and hotels have been attracted to the area precisely because of its exclusive and calm redbrick ambience, and the stadium and RDS showgrounds are there for a long time, part of the fabric of the district.

Dunne also points out that what he is proposing is a mixed development. The 37-story tower would be apartments, with a cultural element on the ground floor, comprising a cinema, art galleries, small music theaters and so on. The site would also have a luxury hotel, restaurants, bars and an underground shopping mall.

In all, there would be 536 apartments in the development plus a large number of office workers coming and going from the blocks of embassies and offices. The whole site would be open to the public from seven access points and would be largely pedestrianized. So no cars and a calm but lively upmarket atmosphere.

All of which sounds fine. And in the artist's impression of the site and the new tower there's not a car to be seen.

The reality is, however, that such massive development is going to result in a massive increase in traffic in the surrounding streets. And what was once a leafy haven will become a hive of motorized activity.

In the artist's impression, the "diamond-cut" 37-story tower is shown from the sharp end, minimizing its bulk and making it appear tall and very slender. From the thick end of its wedge shape, it must look much more bulky and dominating.

No matter what way Dunne spins this, the undeniable truth is that his plan would be a massive intrusion into a quiet, largely residential area.

It's one thing to contemplate high rise development in the center of the city and particularly along the lower docks where there is major regeneration going on and plenty of room. You could argue that some skyscraper buildings in the docklands below the existing Financial Services Center would add a striking new dimension to the city.

But it's quite another thing to build massive office blocks and a 37-story tower three miles away from the city center in the heart of the city's most prestigious residential area.

The launch of Dunne's plans for Ballsbridge was confined to an invited audience and carefully stage managed. Some high profile cheerleaders included Michael Colgan of the Gate Theatre (who has been asked to organize the cultural quarter of the plan) and U2 manager Paul McGuinness (who is planning his own smaller tower in the docklands with a studio on top for the "boys.")

Also there were bankers, developers and a few Fianna Fail backroom heavies. But the city councilors, the elected representatives with responsibility for the area, were not invited. And when the launch was over the plan went on public view for a mere three days.

Now if it was the old days, a few brown envelopes (stuffed with cash) would have sorted out any little planning problems, but nowadays it's a little more complicated. Under the existing City Development Plan, there are no allowances for any tower blocks in Ballsbridge. In fact the only places high rise buildings are allowed are in the docklands and along the Liffey near Heuston Station.

That plan is now out of date and the council had commissioned a new Urban Development Plan for the Ballsbridge area from expert consultants, but then rejected the new plan specifically because it allowed for high rise development.

But it's far from being a lost cause for Dunne and his fellow developers (all cute boyos from the country by the way, not from Dublin). They have gambled huge money on this and they will put enormous pressure on at the highest levels to make it happen.

As for me, I think it would be a travesty if it goes ahead. I keep hearing Luke Kelly's beautiful singing of "Raglan Road" in my head.

Raglan Road is just around the corner from the development.