Mad and SAD over site

A BALLSBRIDGE resident has come up with a medical reason why Sean Dunne’s latest proposal for a high rise development of 568 apartments and a hotel on the Jury’s/Berkeley Court site shouldn’t go ahead – it could give her seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

Dunne may have dropped the idea of the 37-storey tower but opposition to the development on the site hasn’t waned. This at least provides fresh new ammunition that locals can throw at Dunne and is a departure from the usual predictable reasons put forward in planning appeals citing everything from height and scale, to the impact of the loss of the existing hotels on the community and the ruination of the character of beautiful Ballsbridge

The latest proposal by Dunne incorporates elements that rise to 15 storeys. The resident who’s afraid the looming buildings will make her ill, lives opposite the site. “Recent discoveries and advances have provided valuable and incontrovertible evidence that a lack of natural light, both daylight and sunlight, can lead to a wide range of emotional and physical disorders, the most widely known being SAD,” says the appeal

Another appeal from Doyle Hotels expresses support for the proposal but points out that the group has an interest in the site and the right to lease or purchase the hotel until October 2017. It says the planning application for the hotel should have been agreed with the group before it was lodged.

“If terms cannot be agreed between the parties a hotel cannot be developed on this site until after 2017.”

At the rate things are going, 2018 might be a conservative date to expect construction to begin.