Council has ‘serious concerns’ about 13-storey development

DUBLIN City Council is recommending that a 13-storey tower block – part of a planned €338 million 927-unit apartment scheme for the former De La Salle school site in Ballyfermot – not be granted planning permission.

Earlier this year Dwyer Nolan Developments Ltd lodged fast-track plans with An Bord Pleanála for the eight apartment-block scheme with one rising to 13 storeys in height.

The scheme comprises 325 one-bed apartments, 538 two-bed apartments and 64 three-bed apartments, along with one commercial unit and one retail/café unit.

Dwyer Nolan purchased the site in 2018 from the De La Salle order and consultants for the company said that it was their intention to develop a high-quality, mixed-tenure residential scheme, which includes community uses and open spaces.

The plan faces local opposition and the council, in a comprehensive submission, has recommended the omission of the top five floors of the 13-storey apartment block.

The proposal also includes the planned development of two

10-storey blocks on the site.

However, the council has recommended that a maximum seven to eight storeys should be permitted across the site “in the interests of orderly development and visual amenity.”

As part of a 44-page report, it recommended a grant of permission for the overall scheme with the height reductions.

The council said that while the proposal was considered to be acceptable in principle and to provide for a sustainable form of development on a zoned site, it still had “serious concerns in relation to the overall scale, height and massing of the proposal due to the elevated nature of the site”.

The council reported that 30 submissions have been lodged with An Bord Pleanála from the local area.

Some views expressed said that the development of this scale and massing is inappropriate and represents an overdevelopment of the area.

Objectors also claimed that the density proposed was too high and there were too many one-bed units proposed.

A decision is due on the application in August.