Proposals by Lidl Ireland to build a 15-storey tower block in Ballymun must not be stymied by the development of Metrolink, the supermarket giant has told An Bord Pleanála’s hearing on the €9.5 billion rail line.
Lidl wants the tunnel and station at Northwood in north Ballymun to be redesigned to support the weight of its proposed apartment and supermarket scheme, for which it has yet to seek planning permission.
Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), the State body responsible for Metrolink, said it has been working with Lidl in relation to the site for “a number of years” and had no awareness of the proposed scheme, which includes 15 and 10 storey blocks, until the hearing on Monday.
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Lidl owns lands at the proposed location of the Northwood metro station just south of the M50 in Ballymun. Drawings presented at the hearing on Monday by Gerry Murphy of MCA architects for Lidl, show outline designs of a commercial and residential scheme including 200 apartments, a supermarket and offices at the site.
However, while this scheme at up to15 storeys tall complied with the height provisions of the Fingal County Development Plan, it could not be built Lidl said, because the Metrolink tunnels would not support its weight.
Tim Murnane of Punch Consulting Engineers, representing Lidl, said draft guidance for developers recently published by TII, outlined constraints on the loading capacity of the tunnel, as well as protection and exclusion zones above the line which “effectively render large parts of the Lidl site undevelopable”.
It was essential he said the tunnels and station were designed “to take full account of the future development of the Lidl site and not restrict it in any way”.
Dr Ronan Hallissey, representing TII, said this would require a redesign of the tunnel at the location, “and we don’t think that’s reasonable in the context of a proposed new development that’s just appeared for the first time today”.
TII had worked for a number of years with Lidl to establish parameters for high density development on a different part of the supermarket site Dr Hallissey said. “In fact the proposed Metrolink station design for this site has accommodated that, and has been designed to allow for two buildings adjacent to our site”.
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Senior counsel for Lidl Eamon Galligan said the fact the proposed developed was revealed for the first time at the hearing was “of absolutely no relevance”. It was not he said “an application which is about to be made or anything like that” but rather “an exercise to present a development which accords with the [Fingal] development plan”. It was “not a matter of taking anybody by surprise” he said.
Senior counsel for TII Declan McGrath said it was “very much a matter of taking TII by surprise”. TII had discussions with Lidl in good faith over a number of years about the type of development Lidl intended to pursue. The Metrolink application had accommodated what TII believed had been the Lidl proposals “up to about one hour ago”, he said.
Mr Galligan said: “TII say they have engaged with Lidl in relation to this site but the one thing they haven’t done is provide the necessary foundations in terms of designing the tunnel with a load bearing capacity that can bear such development. That’s the real nuts and bolts of the matter,” he said. “The rest is just talk.”
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