Developers seek to build apartments on Yeats house lands

Two property developers are seeking leave from the High Court to challenge a refusal of planning permission for the construction of 18 apartments on lands at Riversdale House, Rathfarnham, Dublin. The court was told Riversdale House is a protected structure associated with the poet W.B. Yeats.

The proceedings by Mr Roy Begley and Mr Gerard Clarke, with an address at Glenageary, Co Dublin, are against An Bord Pleanála, while South Dublin County Council and An Taisce are among a number of notice parties.

The application for leave was opened yesterday by Mr James Macken SC, for the applicants, and resumes before Mr Justice Ó Caoimh on Tuesday.

The applicants bought Riversdale House, Ballyboden Road, for £1.53 million in May 1999. In August 1999 they applied for a development comprising the demolition of the house, outbuildings and a derelict gate lodge and the construction of 28 apartments.

However, they said that, as a result of submissions received regarding that application, it emerged that Riversdale had an association with W.B. Yeats which they were previously unaware of.

In February 2000, the council, on the recommedation of the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, decided to add Riversdale House, the original gates and piers and arched bridge to its record of protected structures and a notice to that effect was served on Mr Begley.

The house was added to the protected structures list on June 12th, 2000. The council later granted permission for a modified apartment development, subject to the retention of Riversdale House, the original gates, piers and arched bridge.

However, in December 2000, An Bord Pleanála refused permission for the 28-apartment development. The applicants then served a purchase notice but in September 2001 the board refused to confirm that notice.

In the interim, in June 2000, the applicants applied for permission to erect 18 apartments in two two-storey apartment blocks with ancillary on and off site development works, including car parking and landscaping.

The development included the demolition of the derelict gate lodge. In March 2001, the council granted permission for the development subject to 38 conditions but that decision was appealed to An Bord Pleanála which in October 2001 refused permission for the development.

The board decided, having regard to the protected status of Riversdale House, that the proposed development would be unacceptable in terms of its effect on the setting of the house and the integrity of its "curtilage" (the area surrounding the house) and would, therefore, be contrary to the proper planning and development of the area.

The applicants claim the board erred in law in its refusal and particularly erred in construing the provisions of the South Dublin Development Plan 1998 as including within the record of protected structures set out in that plan the land around Riversdale House. They claim the board was wrong in deciding the site of the proposed apartments was included within the area surrounding Riversdale House and therefore included in the record of protected structures.