Residents describe 22-storey building plan as Ballymun-like ‘experiment’

The Land Development Agency's plans for a 22-storey social housing and cost rental tower in Dublin 8 have been described as an undemocratic, Ballymun-like "experiment" by local residents.

The State development agency plans to develop 700 homes on the site of the 1950s Dublin City Council flat complex St Teresa's Gardens.

The scheme includes a proposal for a 22-storey block, the same height as the city’s current tallest building, Kennedy Wilson’s Capital Dock tower in the docklands.

The Dublin 8 Residents Association said they supported the LDA's plans for social and cost rental homes on the site, but were shocked by the height proposed.

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“The plans for 22 storeys are crazy and come on the back of Hines’ proposals for a 16-storey tower in the adjacent Bailey Gibson site and 19 on the former Player Wills site, “ spokesman Joe Clarke said.

In 2017, Dublin City Council produced a masterplan for St Teresa’s, along with the Player Wills and Bailey Gibson sites. The latter two were then owned by Nama. However, US developer Hines subsequently bought them, and plans to build more than 1,500 homes in three phases.

The first phase of 416 homes with a 16-storey apartment block, on the Bailey Gibson site was granted permission by An Bord Pleanála last September. It is the subject of a judicial review by local residents, which is due for decision next month. Hines was last month granted permission for the 19-storey building.

"Modern cities all over the world have embraced height beside water but Dublin wants to put it in the middle of residential neighbourhoods. The lack of logic is like the Ballymun experiment of the 1960s and we all know how that worked out," Mr Clarke said.

The LDA is redeveloping St Teresa’s Gardens on behalf of the council, which still owns the site, with 30 per cent of the homes to be retained for social housing, and 70 per cent used for a cost rental scheme aimed at low- and middle-income workers, where the rents are based on the cost of building and managing the apartments.

Mr Clarke said local residents wanted to see homes for people on the housing waiting list, but the height proposed made no sense for a State-funded scheme.

“Everyone knows that as a building increases in height, the building cost per unit goes up too. That’s why the other proposed tall buildings are build-to-rent - they’re so expensive to build that the developers will only do so if their backers are able to get a long-term, upwards-only rental yield, he said. “This type of building doesn’t make sense for a State development.”

The LDA said it had undertaken a consultation process with local residents’ associations, community groups and public representatives in recent months and said the feedback from this process “fed into the outline designs”.

However, Mr Clarke said there had been no meaningful consultation.

“We want to be constructive, particularly for this phase which actually has a chance of providing long-term sustainable homes for people in the community. But no consultation is going to approve 22 storeys when there are safer, cheaper and better ways to achieve the same density. We would ask the LDA not to ape the approach of Hines which has caused huge mistrust and cynicism but also determination as we pursue the only option available to have our voice heard - Judicial Review in the courts.”

A spokesman for the LDA said it was seeking feedback on the "emerging project designs" for the Donore Project.

“These are preliminary proposals and reflect this early stage when ideas are being shared based on the masterplan objectives and observations raised earlier. The feedback from the consultation stage will help to inform consideration of the development of more detailed designs which will be consulted on later this year.”