Dublin City Council signs off on 636-home Milltown scheme despite local opposition

Dublin City Council has granted planning permission to Ardstone for a €300 million ‘buy-to-sell’ apartment scheme near Milltown in south Dublin.

The city council has given the green light to Ardstone subsidiary Sandford Living Ltd’s 636-unit large scale residential scheme (LRD) application for Milltown Park, Sandford Road, Dublin, despite strong local opposition.

The council planner’s report recommended that planning permission be granted after pointing out that the site “will provide for a large number of residential units in a highly sought after existing residential area which is located in an area within close proximity to employment, public transport and a range of services and facilities”.

The report states that the development is made up of 50 per cent of units that are either studio or one-bed units, and finds that the development “will provide the required public open space to the east of the site fronting on to Sandford Road and Milltown Road which exceeds 25 per cent of the site, in addition to a woodland area to the north of the site”.

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The council found that the development “has been designed and landscaped to cater for the residents within the development but also for the community”.

The scheme is to be made up of 87 studios, 227 one-bed units, 296 two-bed units and 26 three-bed units across seven apartment blocks, with one rising to 10 storeys.

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

The council received more than 100 third-party submissions, and the number of third-party objections makes it highly likely that the scheme will be decided by An Bord Pleanála on appeal.

Susan and Philip Browne of Cherryfield Avenue Lower, Ranelagh, argued that the proposal “will have a negative social impact on the neighbourhood”. In a submission the Brownes stated “that the 10-storey building offers no privacy to the houses in the area. Two-storey buildings would be much more welcomed.”

Declan Collier and Jan Winter of Sandford Road, Ranelagh, 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”.

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 Pleanala 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”.