Editing Celbridge (section)

===Housing estates===
Celbridge was rezoned for rapid growth under the 1967 [[Kildare County Council|Kildare Development Plan]]. That year a consortium of Brian and Tony Rhattigan and the McMullan brothers, who owned the Maxol petroleum group, purchased most of the former Castletown Estate for development purposes. Planning permission was granted on appeal for a suburban housing estate along the edge of the avenue leading into [[Castletown House]]. In response [[Desmond Guinness]] personally bought the house in 1967 to save the immediate hinterland from development and established the [[Irish Georgian Society]] in the building.	
Permission was granted for the first development of 400 houses within the gates of Castletown in 1969 and the first phase of Castletown Estate was opened by [[Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment|Minister for Industry and Commerce]] [[Justin Keating]] on 1 October 1975. This was followed by more than 30 housing developments over the next thirty years. The 1986 census listed Celbridge (+54.9pc) as the fastest growing town in Ireland.	
		
The population, which had been 1,514 in 1966, rose to 1,744 in 1971, 3,230 in 1979, 4,583 in 1981, 7,135 in 1986, 9,629 in 1991, 12,289 in 1996, 14,251 in 2002 and 17,262 in 2006.{{citation needed|date = December 2018}}

A 2008 planning application by Devondale Ltd for a new €750m mixed-use development at Donaghcumper Demesne for offices, shops, restaurants, sixscreen cinema and 108 detached houses on the {{convert|98|acre|m2|adj=on}} site, which is being promoted as "a natural extension" to Celbridge, has been criticised by local planners for being "on a city scale rather than a more acceptable town scale."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.independent.ie/business/commercialproperty/councilplannersseektoscaleback8364750mcelbridgeproject1381546.html/|title=Independent.ie}}</ref> The plans ultimately failed to materialise.