Permission refused for 1,104 unit ‘build to rent’ Tallaght apartment scheme

An Bord Pleanala has refused planning permission to a 1,104 unit apartment scheme for the Cookstown Industrial estate in Tallaght. The appeals board refused planning permission to joint applicants, Joseph Costello, Absolute Limousines Ltd and Boherkill Property Development Ltd for the 'fast track' Strategic Housing Development (SHD) consisting entirely of 'build to rent' apartments. The board stated that the €306 million Cookstown Castle scheme – in four blocks ranging from four to eleven storeys in height – would conflict with the Tallaght Town Centre Local Area Plan in terms of its build to rent units and no build to sell units and the intensity of development. It said that a material contravention of the Tallaght Town Centre Local Area Plan is not justified and a grant of permission would set an undesirable precedent for similar developments in the area. The board also refused planning permission after concluding the proposed development would be premature, having regard to the existing deficiencies in the water supply and waste-water sewerage network. The appeals board refused permission after South Dublin County Council recommended that planning permission be refused across a range of headings. The council stated that if granted permission, the proposed scheme would create an extremely poor precedent in the local area which would be compounded by its scale. The council argued that the scheme would utterly compromise the regeneration of the area to provide a sustainable community. The local authority also recommended that planning permission be refused as the layout and treatment of the public realm throughout the development including the presence of large under-passes, the function of which is unclear and would attract anti-social behaviour. Consultants for the applicants told An Bord Pleanala that the scheme has the capacity to accommodate additional residential accommodation and respond to the current housing shortage. Margaret Commane of Hughes Planning and Development Consultants (HPDC) argued that the proposal will not give rise to any undue impacts on the amenity of any adjacent properties. In a separate SHD decision issued on Monday, the appeals board has granted planning permission to Atlas GP Ltd for 255 apartments for a 2.5 hectare site off Church Rd in Killiney in south Dublin.