An Bord Pleanála has granted planning permission to Dairygold for a €237 million residential scheme that includes a 15-storey tower in the south-central suburbs of Cork city.
The tower is one of 11 blocks containing 609 dwellings on the former CMP Dairies site on Kinsale Road and includes 257 build-to-rent apartments.
The Creamfields scheme by Dairygold subsidiary Watfore Ltd is made up of 189 one-bed dwellings; 338 two-bed units; 48 three-bed dwellings and 34 four-bed homes.
The scheme will also include retail use units, a creche, coffee kiosk and gym.
The appeals board granted planning permission for the scheme after board inspector Elaine Power concluded that the proposed development “would largely have a positive impact due to the current vacant nature of the site and the high quality of the scheme, which would aid with placemaking”.
In a further endorsement of the scheme, Ms Power also said that the proposal was “not monolithic”.
On the build-to-rent component of the scheme, Ms Power concluded that it was appropriate as it would provide an additional housing tenure in the wider area, having regard to the site’s proximity to the city centre, to large employment and education centres, services, and other facilities and public transport.
In order to comply with its Part V social housing obligations, the developers are proposing to lease 122 units to Cork City Council.
The council recommended that planning permission be granted and said the scheme was to be welcomed as the first mixed-use and high-density development to be proposed for this part of the city.
The council stated that the redevelopment of the site would act as a catalyst development for a new residential neighbourhood in the area and would make a significant contribution to addressing housing shortage in the city.
A planning report lodged with the fast-track application said the proposal presented an opportunity “to entirely reinvigorate and bring back into use a large, vacant, underutilised brownfield site within the existing footprint of Cork city”.
The planning report by Coakley O’Neill Town Planning said the scheme would deliver a transformative, high-density, mixed-use, primarily residential development at a key entrance to Cork city that would serve as a flagship project to stimulate the regeneration of the surrounding area.
In its decision to grant planning permission, the appeals board said the scheme would be acceptable in terms of design, height and quantum of development.
