Property developments to look out for

Eircom plan challenged

A Drumcondra resident has challenged a plan by Eircom to build a six-storey residential development behind his house.

Eircom was granted permission for the 14,064 sq m (151,383 sq ft) development of 106 apartments and 26 live/work units and three enterprise units on Distillery Road in Drumcondra, Dublin 3. It also plans to build a childcare facility, 156 basement car-parking spaces and 14 three-storey terraced townhouses.

Cahir F O'Higgins with an address at Susanville Road, Dublin 3, says that even the modifications imposed by Dublin City Council in planning conditions "do little to alleviate the monolithic design and negative impact on the local community". He says he was "alarmed" when planning permission was granted for the "six-storey monolithic development immediately to the rear of our house" - in particular the townhouses which will result in overlooking, "as the distance between them will be considerably less that the traditional 22 metres".

He says the live/work units make up only a fraction of the development and have been so named "to overcome obvious zoning issues". The zoning for the site is Z6 "to provide for the creation and protection of enterprise and facilitate opportunities for employment creation".

D4 guest house approved

The owners of a Merrion Hall luxury guest house on Merrion Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 have been granted permission to turn it into a hotel by An Bord Pleanála despite local objection.

Crossplan Investments is planning to extend the guest house at 54-56 Merrion Road into numbers 50 and 52 Merrion Road (formerly a hostel and dwelling respectively) - and build a number of extensions.

In her appeal, Philomena Rogers with an address at Serpentine Avenue said that 56 bedrooms is too intensive a use of the site and out of keeping with the general area. She submitted that the window arrangement to the rear of numbers 50-52 would be obtrusive and overpowering. Tim Yeaton with an address at Sandymount Avenue called the alterations and extension to 54-56 Merrion Road "wholly inappropriate in size and style". However, An Bord Pleanála granted in favour of the development but required that the extension of numbers 50 and 52 would have to be restricted to two storeys.