Vacant Saggart village Maxol site hit with €98k council levy

LANDS worth in the region of €1.4million have been slapped with a vacant site levy by South Dublin County Council, which is demanding payment to the value of €98,000 from its owners.

The subject site is located at the junction of Main Street and Boherboy in Saggart and is owned by Maxol Limited.

The controversial site was deemed derelict following concerns from local residents and was sold to Maxol for a price in excess of €1.5 million at the beginning of 2015 through agent Kelly Walsh.

In 2018, Maxol gave Thomas McMullan permission to apply for planning permission on the lands and he did.

A mixed-use development consisting of 29 residential units, an office unit, two retail units, bin stores and bike storage across four blocks ranging from two- to three-storeys.

Permission was obtained for this mixed-use development.

An inspection completed in December 2018 noted that the property “is a prominent site in the centre of the village with part of a disused public house on the site facing onto Main Street”.

This disused public house is the former Saggart Arms pub.

That inspection, which was carried out by the local planning authority, drew the conclusion that the site had “a lack of any productive uses on site” and that the “site being idle does not provide for an efficient use of the available public services and facilities which serve the subject site”.

A photo of site from behind the Saggart Arms pub

Notices of proposed entry on the vacant sites register was issued to Mr McMullan on October 31, 2018.

In January 2019, this decision was appealed to An Bord Pleanála by Mr McMullan and Maxol Limited.

In August of the same year, the Board confirmed the notice and determined that the site is a vacant site within the meaning of the law.

In October 2020, a notice of demand for payment of vacant site levy for the year 2020 was issued to Maxol and McMullan and they appealed this notice a month later.

The appellants labelled the local planning authorities decision as “unreasonable and inappropriate”.

There is a lack of public access to the site and the appellants described how the planning authority was “reluctant to provide public access to the site”.

Documentation attached to the appeal shows that Maxol Limited are in the process of selling the lands “but is hindered by title issues that requires cooperation from the local authority”.

Taking all information into account, including an argument that the site is no longer vacant due to an imminent development, An Bord Pleanála Senior Planning Inspector, Stephen Rhys Thomas, took the decision to cancel the vacant site levy in September 2021.

It was claimed that works were carried out on site throughout 2021, making it no longer vacant.

However, when the Board considered the inspector’s report and related submissions, it was not satisfied that the lands were not vacant in the calendar year of 2020.

With this, on January 31, 2022, the Board made the decision that it was appropriate for the planning authority to issue the notice and confirm the demand for payment of €98,000 – which is seven percent carried out on site throughout 2021, making it no longer vacant.

However, when the Board considered the inspector’s report and related submissions, it was not satisfied that the lands were not vacant in the calendar year of 2020.

With this, on January 31, 2022, the Board made the decision that it was appropriate for the planning authority to issue the notice and confirm the demand for payment of €98,000 – which is seven percent of the site value.