O'MALLEY CONSTRUCTION has submitted a planning application for a 124-unit residential development at the former Bank of Ireland sports grounds at Knockrabo, Goatstown, Dublin 14.

This is the third planning application the company has lodged for the site, having failed twice before to get planning permission.

Last year An Bord Pleanála refused O'Malley Construction planning permission for a 129-unit housing scheme because the scheme adjoins a reservation for a major road development, the Sandyford to St Helen's link road, and a road layout for the area had not been finalised by the National Roads Authority at that stage.

Two years ago a similar scheme proposed by the company for 159 units was refused on the same grounds.

An Bord Pleanála is expected to decide in the coming months whether Compulsory Purchase Orders on lands along the Sandyford to St Helen's link road will go ahead.

The site is bounded by the Salamanca, Salzburg and Heidelberg roads in Ardilea. Local residents came out in force against previous developments, objecting on the grounds of its density.

This time around O'Malley Construction is looking for 124 residential units, comprising 102 apartments and 22 houses in three blocks on the five-acre site.

In April developer Niall Mellon of Knockrabo Developments Ltd submitted a planning application for his 5.9-acre part of the grounds. It is three years since he was refused planning permission by An Bord Pleanála for a development of over 360 residential units on the site.

He is submitting a planning application to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for a much smaller development of 85 residential units (comprising 26 five-bed four-storey houses, one three-storey house and 58 apartments in three five-storey blocks).

He is also looking to build a new entrance off Mount Anville Road.

Mellon purchased the site for €50 million in 2003 from Michael Roden's Merrion Property Group.

O'Malley Developments bought a portion of the site from Knockrabo Developments in an off-market deal.