Planning news to watch out for
D4 scheme gets permission
Developer Bryan Cullen of Jackson Homes has been granted permission for over 190 apartments and houses on a site to the rear of Sach's Hotel in Donnybrook, Dublin 4. He bought the site for €20 million last year.
The 3.3-acre site with frontage on Bloomfield Avenue and Morehampton Road - for which he outbid many other developers - is on part of a nine-acre front lawn of the Avila Retreat Centre beside the Royal Hospital in Donnybrook. The planning application to Dublin City Council is for 182 apartments in four six-storey apartment buildings, 14 houses and a creche. It also involves 35 surface car-parking spaces, 158 basement car-parking spaces and 200 bicycle spaces.
However, one of the conditions of planning permission requires that the penthouse level be set back in four blocks by 1.7 metres on all sides. Set-backs of 2.5 metres are also required on all six levels of another block and by no less than 5 metres on the eastern facade of the northern most penthouse of another block.
The land was sold by the Discalced Carmelite Fathers and is regarded as one of the best development areas on the southside of the city.
Trinity wins planning battle
An Taisce failed to get planning permission overturned for a six-storey student residence to the north of Luce Hall in Trinity College fronting Pearse Street, Dublin 2. An Taisce submitted to An Bord Pleanála that the development by Trinity College is excessive in scale and would involve the extensive demolition of protected structures.
It said it does not meet with requirements for Draft Architectural Heritage Protection Guidelines for Planning Authorities, and an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the area should be submitted. The development will involve the demolition of an existing wall and railings on the site between 183 Pearse Street and Pearse Street railway bridge.
The planning authority agreed with An Tasice that the proposed development is located in an area of some architectural significance but did not accept it would be incompatible with adjoining protected structures and said the development would effect a significant improvement to the streetscape at this end of Pearse Street. An Bord Pleanála upheld the Dublin City Council's decision.
