Taller apartment blocks needed to protect green belt – Coveney

Taller apartment blocks need to be built in Dublin city centre to address housing shortages and prevent suburban sprawl, Minister for Housing Simon Coveney has said.

Mr Coveney was explaining his decision to ask Dublin City Council not to reduce the height of apartment blocks, as proposed under the draft Dublin City Development Plan.

In May, councillors voted to limit apartment heights in low-rise areas of the inner city to 24m and to 13m in low-rise areas of the suburbs.

Most of Dublin, apart from 14 areas, falls into the low-rise category.

Council chief executive Owen Keegan wanted to set 28m as the maximum height for low-rise apartments in the city centre - the same as for office blocks - and 16m for suburban apartments.

Mr Coveney wants councillors to revert to Mr Keegan’s proposed heights, which would allow one extra storey on an apartment building.

The Minister said he and his department were “uncomfortable” with the restrictions some councillors were advocating.

“I’m not proposing that we build very high-rise apartment blocks in suburban areas in the middle of normal housing estates, but I am proposing that in urban centres in the city, where higher heights in terms of accommodation are more suitable to create modern, high quality urban living, then we should be looking to do that,” Mr Coveney said.

“Otherwise all the new housing units are going to be built on green belts on the outskirts of cities. We need more people living in the heart of cities in high quality, and in some cases, higher buildings.”

Business groups Ibec and the Dublin Chamber of Commerce have also called for councillors not to go ahead with the lower height restrictions.

Ibec said Dublin's "attractiveness" will be undermined if unreasonable restrictions are put on the height of apartment buildings. Ibec's senior executive Aidan Sweeney said it was "crazy" at a time of an acute housing shortage that "impractical height restrictions" were being proposed.

The chamber’s submission to the council calls for planners and architects to be allowed use their creativity to determine what is appropriate for individual sites.