The residents' association on Ailesbury Road, where billionaire Dermot Desmond and developer Bernard McNamara have homes, are objecting to RTE's redevelopment plans for its Donnybrook headquarters.

In a submission to Dublin City Council, the association said it objects "most strongly" to RTE's ambitious plans to replace its existing facilities at the 32-acre site on a phased basis over a 10- to 15-year period. The '2025 Project' would see the demolition of the current television centre, radio centre, sports club, library and multi-storey car park to make way for new facilities housed in three blocks totally 103,553 square metres in size space. The blocks would vary in height from 19.5 metres to 36 metres. RTE has also applied for the rezoning of the site to allow for more intensive development.

The residents' association says it objects to the "massive scale" of the proposal saying that it is "inappropriate" for the surrounding residential area. "Even the smallest of the three blocks rises to 19 metres in height. In addition, it is proposed that several large satellite dishes be mounted on the rooftops of these blocks, further despoiling the skyline," association chairman Patrick Gavin writes. The association is also concerned about new access points to the site and the proposal to provide 800 parking spaces saying this "guarantees a worsening of traffic flow" on the already congested N11.

The height of the proposal has also inspired objections from a number of individual residents on Ailesbury Road, Nutley Road and Seaview Terrace, which one of the proposed buildings will back onto, as well as the Nutley and Ailesbury Court Residents' Associations.

The German embassy, which owns a building on Seaview Terrace, has also made a submission requesting that all security regulations in relation to the project are double checked with their Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Berlin. A spokesman said that this was standard practice for the embassy.