Dublin City Council receives more than 70 objections to €300m apartment scheme

Dublin City Council has received more than 70 objections to plans by Ardstone for a new €300 million apartment scheme near Milltown in south Dublin.

Overall more than 100 third party submissions have been made to the council around the proposal by Ardstone subsidiary Sandford Living Ltd’s 636-unit Large-scale Residential Development (LRD) application.

The scheme is to be made up of 87 studios, 227 one-bed units, 296 two-bed and 26 three-bed units across seven apartment blocks.

In 2019, Ardstone spent €65 million to buy the Jesuit order lands at Sandford Road near Milltown.

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On behalf of the applicants, planning consultant Patricia Thornton of Thornton O’Connor Town Planning has told the council the site is ideally suited for residential development due to its sustainable location in Dublin near employment locations, public transport, services and facilities.

One resident, Clare Doherty of Upper Cherryfield Avenue, Ranelagh, has told the council that she understands there is an urgent requirement for housing in Dublin “but believes a more suitable and sustainable development plan needs to be put in place for this site”.

Ms Doherty told the council that “the height and density of the proposed development is not in keeping with the residential nature of the surrounding area”.

Declan Collier and Jan Winter of Sandford Road, Ranelagh, have told the council that “the highest building at 10 storeys is out of character with the area and provides too much oversight of the existing neighbourhood properties, depriving the residents of privacy”.

Amy Stephenson of Terenure Road West has told the council: “I believe more housing is needed in this city, but this planned development does not adequately answer the housing problem.”

Ms Stephenson said: “The proposed size and scale of this development is completely out of character with the surrounding area.”

David Brophy and Tara Jennings of Cherryfield Avenue Lower have told the council that the scheme should be refused planning permission on a number of grounds, including “that there is no capacity in local primary schools within walking distance to accommodate the number of children the developers anticipate living within a development at this scale”.

Ardstone received planning permission from An Bord Pleanála in December 2021 for a mainly build-to-rent apartment complex on the 10-acre site.

However, after An Bord Pleanála consented to a High Court challenge against the planning permission last October, Ardstone stated that the decision “will regrettably add considerable and unnecessary delay as well as added expense to the delivery of much-needed housing units in the city centre”.