Council recommends refusal for €135m Blackrock apartment scheme

Dublin's Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has recommended to An Bord Pleanála that a planned €135 million 'build to rent' apartment scheme for former Blackrock College lands be refused on a number of grounds.

As part of a 69-page planning report, the council has recommended planning permission be refused on four separate grounds for the 244-unit apartment scheme by Lioncor at lands at Cross Avenue on a site adjacent to the private fee-paying school.

The strategic housing development (SHD) scheme by Lioncor subsidiary 1 Players Land Ltd is made up of three blocks, with one reaching to nine storeys in height.

However, the council has recommended refusal after concluding it would have a detrimental impact on the character of the area due to its scale, height and visual prominence.

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The council said the scheme would set an undesirable precedent for other similar developments and would be contrary to the policies of the building heights strategy of the council’s development plan.

Parking spaces

It also recommended refusal due to insufficient parking spaces proposed and ruled this would result in on-street car-parking pressures which would be exacerbated given the location of the site in the context of existing schools.

The council also recommended planning refusal as the layout of the scheme’s basement car park would inhibit the use of the cycle spaces in the proposal.

Other parties that expressed concern over the proposed scheme were Rev Canon Wharton, rector at at St Philip and St James's Church; the St Margaret's Residents Association and Booterstown National School.

In its application to An Bord Pleanála, Lioncor stated the scheme was “an exemplar build-to-rent development”. Planning consultants for the scheme McGill Planning said the proposed building height “ensures optimal use of this site at this urban location”.