Dublin City Council has paused a Johnny Ronan-backed plan for a revised office scheme in the docklands after residents raised concerns about the development’s impact on daylight levels.
The council has sought further information from NWQ Devco Limited, the Ronan firm seeking permission for a scaled-back redevelopment of Citigroup’s European headquarters at 1 North Wall Quay.
The application, lodged in December, seeks a 10‑year planning approval for a 12‑storey replacement and expansion of the existing building.
The proposal follows An Coimisiún Pleanála’s decision last August to uphold the council’s refusal of an earlier 17‑storey scheme. The revised design represents a substantial reduction in height and bulk, a change planners have broadly welcomed.
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“A request for further information is a normal part of the planning process. Dublin City Council has asked for further information on elements of the proposal which is standard in an application of this size, and we are happy to supply same,” Ronan Group said in a statement.
The move to reduce the scale of the proposals has been broadly welcomed by city council planners.
In correspondence to the developer, the council noted positively that more than 70 per cent of the existing structure is to be retained and incorporated into the new complex.
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However, it said residents of the neighbouring Clarion Quay Estate had raised “significant concerns” about the development’s effect on daylight and sunlight, specifically what they described as a “cumulative gloom effect”.
As a result the council has requested the applicant to consider further reduction and modulation of the proposed Blocks B and C.
The current six-storey Citigroup building comprises 34,507sq m and the proposal will retain 24,767sq m of the existing floor area which will be incorporated in the development and the revised proposal will provide 53,774sq m of high-quality office space across 12 floors.
John Spain, planning consultant for the Ronan firm, told the council that the previous reasons for refusals by ACP had been fully addressed through the redesign of the development.
Clarion Quay Estate (CQE) is a primarily residential complex lying directly to the north and east of the proposed development and in a 17-page objection the Clarion Quay Estate CLG said “the overdevelopment of the site, indicated by the plot ratio and building heights, leads to massing and scale which would overwhelm the existing CQE development and deprive the residents of their existing amenity”.
Clarion Quay resident Dean Meehan told the council “this is clear overdevelopment and the design fails the most basic light and amenity tests, and the 10-year timeline is a death sentence for my ability to work from home”.
