One of the country’s biggest builders is preparing fresh development plans for a site near St Anne’s Park in Raheny in north Dublin, after previous efforts to build there failed.
Developer Marlet Group is to lodge plans in the coming days with Dublin City Council for 580 apartments and a 100-bed nursing home on a 6.6-hectare (16.5-acre) site at lands to the east of St Paul’s College at Sybil Hill in Raheny, Dublin 5.
The newly proposed scheme is made up of 272 one-bed units, 15 two-bed, three-person units, 233 two-bed, four-person units and 60 three-bed units. It will also include 520 car-parking spaces and 1,574 bicycle spaces.
The 100-bed nursing home is to be four floors high and arranged around a courtyard.
The plan also provides for 2.8 hectares (7.16 acres) in open space which includes six playing pitches that will be taken in charge by Dublin City Council.
Marlet’s move follows the High Court last year overturning planning permission for 657 homes on the site. The published statutory planning notice concerning the new scheme by Marlet subsidiary Raheny 3 Ltd Partnership states that it is to comprise seven apartment blocks from four to seven storeys in height and is to be lodged with the council as a “large scale residential development” (LSRD).
The new LSRD system is replacing the contentious strategic housing development (SHD) system that is currently being phased out. Under the SHD system, developers could bypass local authorities and lodge plans directly to An Bord Pleanála. As part of the LSRD system, developers must first lodge their plans with councils and parties have the option of appealing decisions to An Bord Pleanála.
During the court hearing last year that saw Marlet’s previous plans rejected, Mr Justice Richard Humphreys noted that the proposed development at the site has so far clocked up four decisions by An Bord Pleanála and 10 sets of legal proceedings “and counting”.
In 2018, the board granted its first permission, for 536 dwellings on the site, but that was overturned by the High Court and remitted for reconsideration.
