The National Trust has been granted permission to build a new visitors' centre at the Giant's Causeway on the Co Antrim coast.
Northern Ireland's Environment Minister Sammy Wilson has given the go-ahead for the facility, which will cost £19m
The previous centre at the world heritage site was burnt down eight years ago and the efforts to replace it have been surrounded by controversy.
North Antrim developer Seymour Sweeney is currently taking legal action against Mr Wilson's department for rejecting his bid for a privately operated facility at the site.
Mr Wilson said the time had come for decisive action to rebuild the centre.
He said that given the Giant's Causeway's key role as Northern Ireland's premier tourist attraction, the public rightly expected some clear direction from a devolved minister on the matter.
He said he had weighed up all the options including the merits of referring this application to the Planning Appeals Commission either on its own or along with a hearing into the previous unsuccessful application from a private developer.
But he believed neither of these options would be of any public benefit and would introduce a further delay into the provision of the facility.
He said this would lengthen the already unacceptably long period during which the top tourist attraction has been without a visitors' centre.
This would not be in the public interest, he said, and having considered all relevant matters he had decided to approve the National Trust application.
The trust submitted its application in June last year based on a design by Dublin-based architects Heneghan Peng, who won an international design competition for a visitors' centre in 2005.
Mr Sweeney's application for a centre was submitted in February 2002 but was rejected a year ago by the then Environment Minister Arlene Foster on the ground that it did not fit in with the natural environment.
National Trust Director for Northern Ireland Hilary McGrady welcomed the announcement.
'This is a very significant day for the Giant's Causeway, and the people of Northern Ireland,' she said.
It is envisaged that the trust's centre will be open to the public by 2011.
Tonight, a spokesman for Mr Sweeney's company - Seaport Ltd - said there was now little point proceeding with the appeal to the Planning Appeals Commission because a rival proposal had been given the green light.
However, he said Mr Sweeney was reviewing his options and was not ruling out pushing ahead with his bid for a judicial review.
