GIVEN that most builders have laid down their shovels for the foreseeable future, you might imagine that the most challenging assignment local authority planners get these days is to reorganise the filing system, or get to grips with the finer points of sodoku
Not so. While very few builders have any serious intention of getting back on site any time soon, there are still planning applications going through the system.
How many of them will ever be built is another question.
Some of the developments will undoubtedly see the light of day but it appears some builders are going through motions by submitting planning applications to realise the value of their sites while others are going for 10-year planning permissions in the hope the economy picks up before then.
This week alone there’s a 10-year planning application to Dublin City Council for an ambitious regeneration project in the Charlemont Street area in Dublin 2.
The planning application is for 260 residential units to rehouse the existing community and a new public street from Charlemont Street to Richmond Street South.
There are also plans for an office element with shops, restaurants and a multiplex cinema and a community sports centre .
On Monastery Road in Clondalkin at the Siac HQ, there’s a proposal for 380 residential units and shops which is currently on appeal with An Bord Pleanála.
The sisters of St Louis are looking to build 86 apartments on their grounds in their high school in Rathmines, six of which will be reserved for their own use and in Swords, MKN is seeking permission for another phase of the Ridgewood residential development.
