Six appeals to David Arnold's plans for Foxrock village

DEVELOPER DAVID Arnold has come up against opposition to his proposal for an apartment scheme at Gortanore on Brighton Road, Foxrock, Dublin 18.

Six parties have submitted appeals to An Bord Pleanála on foot of permission granted last month by Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council for 37 apartments in three blocks. They are Foxrock Area Development Ltd (FADL), Joseph McCarthy, Residents of 4-8 Grove Wood, Michael Clancy and Thomas Murphy and Neil McHugh.

Arnold paid €31 million for the four-bed detached property on 2.8-acres in 2006, making it the top-selling house of the year.

Also part of the proposal is a gym, conference room, shops and commercial space at street level, and 90 car-parking spaces (84 at basement level).

The apartments, on the edge of Foxrock village, would be 167-297sq m (1,800-3,000sq ft) and have a full-time concierge.

FADL says Gortanore is "the last critical" development site in Foxrock village. It says a previous planning application - to build 11 apartments, an office and a shop by developer Bernard McNamara's Michael McNamara Co at Clonbur at the corner of Westminster Road and Torquay Road - was refused permission as it was contrary to policy to preserve or enhance the character and quality of the environment within a conservation area. It says now that Foxrock village has been designated an Architectural Conservation Area (ACA), "the material effect that the proposed development would be likely to have on the character of the area has even greater significance".

Saying that Gortanore has potential to have "a major detrimental impact" on the amenities and character of Foxrock, it argues that the scheme is "a commercial development geared to achieve the maximum return for its promoter while giving nothing back to the local community, and premature in the absence of a village improvement scheme".

In his appeal to An Bord Pleanála, Neil McHugh, a resident of Westminster Road, says the four-storey height would be out of scale with buildings in the village and ACA. "There is a lack of adequate infrastructure in Foxrock village to cope with the quantum of new development proposed."