2,314 homes approved for Phoenix Park racecourse

An Bord Pleanála has approved planning permission for a 2,314-home development on the former Phoenix Park racecourse in Dublin.

The approval was subject to 30 conditions, including an €11.5 million payment towards road and traffic management.

The approval means the 2,314 new homes are to be built virtually back-to-back with 4,569 homes at Pelletstown, permission for which was approved earlier this year.

The development of the 113-acre site, which includes the Phoenix Park racecourse lands, brings to an end a saga which has been running since the course closed in 1990.

The permission is for a new residential area with an 18-acre public park fronting the Navan Road and a new town square. As well as the racecourse, the site includes adjacent lands in Castleknock and Ashtown in Dublin 15. The overall site is made up of two parcels of land separated by the N3. There will also be 3,455 sq metres of local services, including offices, retail outlets, healthcare facilities, bars and restaurants and 579 sq metres of childcare facilities.

Apart from the €11.5 million contribution, there were also other conditions as to the phasing of the development, alterations to the location of some of the units, and landscaping and drainage.

The development was designed by architect Mr Toal Ó Muiré and his own practice, OMS Architects, for the builders Flynn and O'Flaherty.

OMS Architects also designed the innovative Pavilions shopping centre in Swords for Flynn and O'Flaherty.

Flynn and O'Flaherty had appealed the size of the financial contribution, describing it as "excessive".

Mr Ó Muiré is currently the president of the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland (RIAI) and last night welcomed the decision to approve the project.

However, yesterday Ms Pat Allison, spokeswoman for the Phoenix Park Racecourse Preservation Association, which along with the West Dublin Action Group had appealed the permission to Bord Pleanála, said the group was still hoping the development would be stopped. She told The Irish Times that members had written to the Mahon tribunal, asking it to speed up its inquiries into the rezoning of the lands.

"The Taoiseach has already said that where it is not too late to do anything about development which has been referred to the tribunal, the tribunal could halt it. We have complained about the rezoning of this to the tribunal and we are now writing to it in the hope of having the rezoning overturned before building starts," she said.

The association says there has already been significant development in the area since 1990, and the proposed development would quadruple the area's population once more.