A property development firm that owns a large parcel of land near Cornelscourt village in south Dublin has successfully challenged a vacant site levy of €840,000.
An Bord Pleanála has instructed Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council to cancel its demand for Cornel Living to pay the levy for 2019 in relation to a 1.9-hectare site off the Old Bray Road in Foxrock.
The board had refused planning permission for a proposal by Cornel Living to build 452 build-to-rent apartments and 16 houses on the site in April 2020 because of the development’s failure to provide adequate communal space and the lack of adequate waste-water infrastructure in the area.
A previous registered owner of the lands, Fellhurst, had unsuccessfully appealed the council’s placement of the site on its vacant site register in 2018.
As a consequence the council issued the new owner, Cornel Living, with the demand to pay a levy of €840,000 in June 2020 based on a 7 per cent rate.
The council estimated the value of the lands at €12 million.
Council officials claim the site was not in residential use and was not being used for the purpose for which it was zoned during 2019, with evidence indicating the lands had been vacant since June 2013.
They also pointed to the need for housing in south Dublin, where just 422 properties of the 88,500 housing stock within the council’s administrative area was for sale or rent in 2016.
A request by Cornel Living to remove the site from the register in December 2019 was rejected, although the company claimed the presence of invasive plants, including Japanese knotweed, prevented the site from being available for housing, while it was also being used for training by Geraldine Moran’s GAA club.
Invasive species
Cornel Living objected to the demand for the vacant site levy to be paid on the basis that the lands were not served by public infrastructure and facilities to enable housing to be provided as well as referring again to its use for sport and the presence of invasive plant species.
The company referred An Bord Pleanála to its own decision that the proposed strategic development of 468 housing units on the site was premature due to deficiencies in the waste-water network in the area.
However, the council maintained that the site could be serviced as there was no impediment to developing a lower number of housing units on the lands.
It claimed Cornel Living also had ample opportunity to deal with invasive plant species as it had control of the site since the end of 2018.
The council said the use of the site for sporting activities was not considered a use associated with housing.
An inspector with An Bord Pleanála said it was clear the site was hampered by network constraints and planning permission for housing would be refused until upgrades were at least known or completed.
The inspector said the presence of Japanese knotweed would not prevent the development of housing on the site.
While the site was correctly placed on the vacant site register in the first place, the inspector said new information about deficiencies in infrastructure meant the lands were and continue to be unsuitable for housing.
