Neighbours oppose plans for new home on Dalkey’s exclusive Sorrento Road

A planning row has erupted over plans by John Feeney to build a family home in the front garden of his Sorrento Road home, Monte Alverno in Dalkey, south Dublin.

Mr Feeney’s Victorian house sits on one of the most exclusive roads in the country, overlooking Killiney Bay. At the height of the building boom in 2007 it was priced at €25 million. By 2018 the property was on the market for €7.5 million, The Irish Times reported at the time.

It is separate to a nearby home, Mount Alverno, built in 2009.

The “substantial six-bedroom” Monte Alverno, which is a protected structure, extends to 789sq m (8,500sq ft) and the new application seeks planning permission for a two-storey, flat-roofed four-bedroom home in Monte Alverno’s front garden.

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In a six-page architectural design report by extend.ie lodged with the plans, it is stated that “the new house will provide a much-needed additional family home in a serviced site on appropriately zoned land”.

The report further states that, in addition, “the house has been designed and positioned to have minimal visual impact both to the main house at Monte Alverno and minimal visual impact on the surrounding properties”.

However, neighbours and the Dalkey Community Council are objecting to the scheme, with six objections lodged in total.

Next-door neighbours Dr Ian Daly and Dr Anne Cleary, of Capri, Sorrento Road, have lodged an objection.

On their behalf, David Armstrong of Armstrong Planning contends that “the proposed development will fundamentally alter the character of the area and spoil the special contribution that Monte Alverno house makes to the setting of the architectural conservation area (ACA)”.

Mr Armstrong also states that the proposal “will impact on the privacy of the residents at Capri next door, impacting on the residential amenity and the quality of life”.

[ Dramatic Dalkey hilltop demesne drops price 70% to €7.5m ]

On behalf of Michael Power, Ischia, Sorrento Road, Dalkey, planning consultants O’Connor Whelan contend that the proposed house “is poorly located and will have an unacceptable impact on the protected structure and the local area”. Martin Hally, the owner and occupier of Cintra, a family residence bordering Sorrento Road and Vico Road, said that his own family “are now facing the prospects of the proposed new building directly front-facing and overlooking our family residence”.

Muireann McDonnell, of Ebenezer, Sorrento Road, has told the council that “the bulk, scale and massing of the proposed dwelling is considered to be out of context and character with the streetscape and surrounding area”.

In the Dalkey Community Council objection, chairperson Dr Susan McDonnell contends that the scale, mass and density of the proposed development “is out of context and will be visually obtrusive at this prominent site”.