Controversial Dublin apartment plan is approved

An Bord Pleanála has approved planning permission for a major 500-unit apartment development of up to eight storeys in height on the former Esso and Irish Cement site in Stillorgan in south county Dublin.

The permission also includes an 86-bedroom nursing home, creche and five-storey office block, as well as parking for about 700 cars, two retail units and internal roads with access for emergency vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians. The cost of the development has been estimated at almost €200m.

The controversial development of the 11-acre site has been the subject of a number of planning refusals and was appealed by five local residents associations.

Fronting onto the Stillorgan and Brewery Roads, the apartments will be arranged in nine blocks, rising from three to eight storeys in height.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council decided in principle to grant planning permission for the development last February. Upholding that decision, Bord Pleanála imposed a total of 27 conditions, relating to the height and positioning of some of the apartment blocks; the layout and size of a basement car-park; vehicular access to the office block and the retention of the wooded area on Brewery Road for the use of the residents.

The board also said the developers, Galloping Green Developments, controlled by property developer Mr Derek Quinlan, who bought the site in 2000 for over €31 million, should pay the council €1.345m in development levies in respect of the proposed extension of Luas from Sandyford to Cherrywood.

The board decided to eliminate the top, sixth floor of one of the blocks in the interests of the amenity of neighbouring houses. The move reduced the number of apartments in the scheme from 525 to 501. The application for 760 car park spaces has been reduced to about 700, the final number to be agreed between the council and the developer.

The board also decided that the apartment blocks should be located away from the nursing home on the site.

A spokesman for the Leopardstown and Brewery Road Residents Association declined to comment on the decision yesterday, remarking that there had been insufficient time to study the board's ruling. Previous refusals were made on the grounds of height, bulk and scale and some residents fear the development will set a precedent for high rise development in the area.