Ballyboden apartments given green light despite local opposition

South Dublin County Council has given the green light to plans for a 402-unit apartment scheme for Taylor’s Lane in Ballyboden despite local opposition.

The planning authority has granted planning permission to Shannon Homes Dublin UC for the large-scale residential development (LRD) scheme comprising three blocks rising to five storeys despite the opposition of local residents.

The planning permission for the LRD plan follows the High Court in January 2022 quashing an An Bord Pleanála planning permission for a Shannon Homes UC strategic housing development (SHD) scheme for 486 apartments at the same site.

This followed a court challenge by the Ballyboden Tidy Towns Group and the Tidy Towns Group, which lodged an objection against the new application.

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Underlining the scale of the scheme, the council has attached a condition requiring the developer to pay €4.19 million in planning contributions towards public infrastructure to the council.

It is one of 29 conditions attached to the permission and the council granted planning permission after a 180-page planning report by McGill Planning lodged with the LRD scheme stated that the building design of the LRD had been altered to take into account comments by council planners, while the building height had also been reduced, which in turn reduced the density, while the number of car spaces had also been reduced.

The report stated that the proposal “is a well-designed scheme that provides a sense of place and identity on this brownfield, underutilised piece of land with good access to multiple frequent bus routes”.

The McGill Planning report stated that the LRD “will provide a high-quality living environment”.

Third parties now have the option of appealing the decision to An Bord Pleanála.

On behalf of Ballyboden Tidy Towns Group, Marston Consultancy told the council the development would be contrary to the building height guidelines for the area and would result in excessive residential density for this location, with inadequate high-capacity public transport.

Planning consultant Anthony Marston told the council “the residential density proposed in this instance is not justifiable and will have a knock-on negative impact upon the quality of the development and layout but also, more importantly, on the residential and visual amenities of the surrounding residential areas”.

Mr Marston also stated that the “gross overdevelopment” required the council to conclude that permission should be refused as the scheme constituted an overdevelopment of the site.

He also argued that the “excessive massing and scale” would be incongruous along all surrounding streets and would be overbearing in nature to surrounding residential areas as well as resulting in a loss of residential amenity.