An Bord Pleanála has rejected planning approval for nearly 900 residential units in southern Dublin. The regulatory body dismissed Cairn Homes’ proposal for 355 “built to rent” (BTR) flats for Cross Avenue, Blackrock. The appeals board denied planning approval for the BTR segment of the Strategic Housing Development (SHD) initiative, arguing that the BTR residences would result in a significant oversupply in the region.
This decision arrives more than two years post the “fast track” planning application encompassing six blocks of up to eight storeys each was filed in April 2022. The board is now taking steps to address the accumulated SHD applications backlog.
Cairn suffered a second planning setback when the appeals board also declined planning approval for 534 BTR flats spread over eight blocks, including a ten-storey block, situated at Winterbrook and Barrington Tower, Brennanstown Road, Dublin 18. The SHD proposal – submitted in April 2022 – included 30 studios, 135 one-bed flats, 318 two-bed flats, and 51 three-bed flats.
The proposed project encountered local resistance, with 24 objections filed, including one from local TD Richard Boyd Barrett (People Before Profit-Solidarity) and party member Cllr Melisa Halpin, claiming that the ten-storey proposal is a mere 200m from an ancient 5,500 portal tomb.
The appeals board declined planning approval for the Barrington SHD initiative due to factors like the overwhelming height, visual design, and size of the proposed project, and the privacy invasion between flats causing potential disturbances for future occupants.
However, for the Chesterfield, Cross Avenue, Blackrock decision, the appeals board approved planning for 11 build-to-sell houses.
The Blackrock SHD proposal faced a refusal from the appeals board after James M Sheehan, co-founder of the Blackrock, Hermitage and Galway Clinics, criticised the plan as “exorbitantly excessive”.
More than 30 objections were raised against the SHD proposal. In his appeal, Mr Sheehan emphasised to the appeals board that “the suggested development is unreasonably excessive for an area already afflicted with traffic congestion and adverse effects on the appropriate planning of established areas of the borough.”
Mr Sheehan, a resident of Cross Avenue, Blackrock, has expressed his concerns regarding the ‘build to rent’ concept for apartments, claiming it does not promote a stable community due to the prevalence of short-term lease agreements. Additionally, in his single-page proposal, Mr Sheehan has criticised the excessive size of these apartments, which he notes are taller than any other buildings in the vicinity.