High-rise developers are holding their nerve, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor.
Developers who paid staggeringly high prices for sites in Ballsbridge were gambling that Dublin City Council's planners would permit high-rise - or, at least, high-density - schemes in the area. Otherwise, there would be little chance that they would recoup their investments.
It was Seán Dunne, of Mountbrook Homes, who set an early record in autumn 2005 when he paid the equivalent of €50 million per acre for the Jurys Hotel site and more for the adjoining Berkeley Court Hotel. There was talk of a 32-storey tower as the centrepiece for an ambitious development. Several international architects were invited by Mr Dunne to make proposals for the combined hotels site before veteran Danish architect Henning Larsen was chosen.
As expected, it did include a 32-storey tower - plus a number of other high-rise buildings, ranging from 12 to 18 storeys, stepping down to seven storeys on the edges of the site, an upmarket shopping mall, health and fitness centre, arthouse cinema, jazz club and even an ice rink.
Dublin city architect Jim Barrett is known to have been enthusiastic, as was chief planning officer Dick Gleeson. But despite an initially favourable reaction earlier this year to a preview of the plans, which were not made public, local residents have turned against it - followed by their councillors.
On Monday, the council's southeast area committee unanimously rejected the draft local area plan (LAP) which the council's own planners had commissioned to provide a statutory framework for the development of Ballsbridge. It is expected that the full council will consider the matter next month.
Against the backdrop of an election campaign, it was probably not surprising that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour and the PDs took the same line, with Cllr Wendy Hederman (PD) saying that "just because somebody paid a high price for a site doesn't mean we have to allow high rise".
It was, as one source close to Mr Dunne said yesterday, "a pre-emptive strike by the Nimbys" - a reference to what some might see as the "Not in My Back Yard" view adopted by a coalition of 14 residents' associations. Branding it as "a developers' charter which . . . will irreparably damage the character and heritage of the area", they called for the plan to be abandoned in its entirety and put pressure on the councillors to reject it "unequivocally" - which is exactly what the councillors did on Monday.
Seán Dunne and other developers are expected to hold their nerve, however; the game is not over yet. For a start, what the southeast area committee adopted was an emergency motion tabled by former lord mayor Dermot Lacey (Lab), Cllr Hederman and Cllr Lucinda Creighton (FG). It was not on the agenda and neither did the committee have before it the city manager's report on the draft LAP; this is still being prepared.
City planners are expected to endorse the broad thrust of the draft LAP. By the time the full council considers the matter on June 11th, general election feverishness will be over.