Plan for 196-unit apartment scheme in Phibsborough faces local opposition

Plans to construct a 196-unit apartment scheme at an old bakery site in Phibsborough have run into local opposition.

In May Bindford Ltd lodged plans for the proposal for Cross Guns Bridge, Phibsborough, that is to include 118 build-to-sell apartments and 78 apartments for sale in three blocks ranging in height from three to 12 storeys.

Dublin City Council has received over 30 third-party submissions concerning the Large Scale Residential Development (LRD). One of the submissions is from the Leinster, Ulster and Munster Streets Residents Association.

A planning report lodged with the application said that the applicant had reduced the build-to-rent component from a previous proposal for the site to 60 per cent in its new plan. The report said that the site currently contained a number of unattractive buildings and what was proposed was “an attractive residential development on a zoned serviced site”.

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The report, by McGill Planning, said that the applicants were seeking a seven-year planning permission to account for the prospect of a legal challenge as a previous permission had been challenged. . It added that the impact of the proposal would improve the character of the area “from the neglected industrial character that currently pervades”.

The report said Bindford Ltd was anxious to develop the lands “as the site has been targeted for site activation measures, including vacant site levy and residential zoned land tax”.

In his objection Cllr Seamus McGrattan (SF) said the apartment blocks were “completely over-scaled for the location, in comparison to the canal and the wider area of Phibsborough Road and surrounding residential streets”. He said the development “due to its excessive height and massing, will have a huge negative impact on the Royal Canal”.

Former environment editor at The Irish Times, Frank McDonald, had lodged a submission in support of the residents’ objections. He said that “this LRD application is the second attempt by Bindford Ltd to foist a grossly over-scaled scheme on the residents of Leinster Street and environs as well as the wider Phibsborough area”.