The plan by South Dublin County Council's to turn the Liffey Valley shopping centre at Quarryvale into a "town centre" for Lucan-Clondalkin has suffered a serious setback from An Bord Pleanála.
Ruling on appeals over plans by Treasury Holdings Ltd to develop a rival site at Balgaddy - designated as the future town centre since 1972 - the board said it considered this site as "generally suitable for development of the type proposed".
The county council had refused planning permission for Treasury's scheme, which included a major shopping centre as well as a hotel, multiplex cinema, gym, bar-restaurant, car-parking and more than 1,000 apartments on the site.
However the appeals board has concluded that Balgaddy is the right site for such a development, given its "central location in relation to development in the greater Lucan-Clondalkin area and its proximity to the Dublin-Cork railway line".
Other factors which influenced the board included the Strategic Planning Guidelines for the Greater Dublin Area, the Government's Retail Planning Guidelines and the county council's own development plan.
The board said it had also taken into account the "limited impact" of the proposed development on the national road network and to forthcoming improvements to transportation infrastructure serving the area, such as upgrading the railway line.
However as currently designed, the scheme proposed by Treasury "is not acceptable and requires modification". The board has given the developers until February 20th to devise a new scheme which would meet its requirements.
In its ruling, the board said the present proposal would result in over-development of the site in a form unsuitable for a town centre and its "monolithic" appearance would not be conducive to integration with other schemes on adjoining sites.
In particular, it took exception to the fact that the proposed town centre would be elevated on a podium, saying this form "would constitute a barrier" to such connection and would also inhibit flexible, phased development of the site.
The board also complained about the "preponderance of dead frontage" other than on the main pedestrian route through the centre. The width of the proposed streets and the height of the buildings also meant there would be "little sunlight".
It described the residential element as excessively dense and queried why a large number of student housing units had been included, given that the Balgaddy site "is not readily accessible" from existing third-level colleges in the Dublin area.
Residential blocks were "too close together" and would suffer from overshadowing. Deck access to these blocks was also seen as unsuitable, "having regard to considerations of privacy and prevention of anti-social behaviour".
Other criticisms related to inadequate car parking, lack of community facilities and "vague" information on phasing as well as the integration of the scheme with a future railway station and bus corridors.
Treasury Holdings greeted the board's ruling with "extreme satisfaction", saying it felt vindicated on the central issue of Balgaddy versus Liffey Valley and it had "every confidence" that it would be able to meet the board's requirements.
A spokesman for Grosvenor Holdings said the London-based company had just seen the board's ruling and would obviously be considering it. But Grosvenor believed it amounted to a "comprehensive rejection" of Treasury's existing plans.
