The long running planning saga over a proposed 525-unit residential development on a high profile 11.32-acre site at Galloping Green in Stillorgan, Co Dublin has taken another twist with five residents groups appealing planning permission, writes Edel Morgan
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council also granted permission for a 86-bed nursing home, two retail units, offices and a crèche and 760 car-parking spaces in nine blocks of three to eight stories.
The plan is that the office block would front the site onto Stillorgan Road to screen noise emanating from the dual carriageway. Galloping Green developments Ltd - a consortium led by Derek Quinlan which bought the site in 2000 for over €31 million - has had a number of planning refusals for the site.
The residents groups opposing the current proposal are Leopardstown and Brewery Road Residents Association, Lawnswood Park Residents Association, Rocwood and Laurleen Residents Association, Farmleigh Residents and Stillorgan District Community and Residents Alliance. Concerns include the massive scale of the development which they say is out of character with the surrounding two-storey detached residential area.
Several refer to a previous refusal on the grounds of height, bulk and scale and ask why a similar development has now got planning permission. They believe the development will set a precedent for high rise development in the area and will overlook nearby houses - five of the blocks are only 30 metres from the bedroom windows of houses in Laurleen.
"The apartment blocks are stepped from three to four to five to six stories in height. These blocks will be overlooking the back gardens and houses in Laurleen and will be a total erosion of their privacy," says one appeal.
The traffic impact assessment in the EIS is criticised by residents group who point to existing traffic congestion along Brewery Road and Rocwood/Laurleen as a result of the upgrading of Leopardstown Road. One of the conditions of permission imposed by the planning authority is that there will be no exit from the development onto the Stillorgan Road - meaning traffic from the site will now exit onto Brewery Road.
Locals believe the assumption that traffic on the N11 will be reduced by 25 per cent when the South Eastern Motorway opens in 2006 is flawed because the Dublin Transport Office (DTO) predicts an increase in car ownership.
The site has extended frontage on both Stillorgan Road and Brewery Road with a public park and Leopardstown Tennis Club running along a third boundary. Regarded as one of the best located sites in south Dublin, it was owned for more than 40 years by Royal and Sun Alliance. There is a boarded up single and two-storey office block dating form the 1960s on site, where tenants formerly included Esso.
