Flexible approach to high-rise urged

Unnecessary limits on the height of apartment buildings could damage the regeneration of Dublin and have a negative effect on future housing quality in the city, Dublin city manager John Tierney has said.

Speaking at a planning conference in Dublin yesterday, Successful Apartment Living: Combating Urban Sprawl, Mr Tierney said that "a flexible planning approach" was needed rather than fixed rules on building heights, if desirable neighbourhoods were to develop.

The council is to publish guidelines on building height and high-density developments later this year.

Capping building heights would limit the opportunities for the city, Mr Tierney said.

"There are significant opportunity costs involved in unnecessarily limiting the heights of new apartment developments and these can be lesser housing quality, fewer new homes provided, less housing choice, less open space, negative effects on regeneration possibilities and international competitiveness."

High-rise buildings were not suitable for all locations, Mr Tierney said, but in particular areas they could be of real benefit to the city and the local community.

Giving the example of a site on Marrowbone Lane in the southwest inner city, he said there was an opportunity to provide new council offices, an expansion of the digital hub and a public library in a "very fine tall building" with little or no overshadowing.

"We could say yes to these much-needed facilities in one tall building, or no because the building should not be greater than eight storeys."

Allowing "appropriate height" would also free up more ground area for public parks on the model of St Patrick's Park, also in the inner city. "These are real planning choices with real consequences for people's life opportunities."

High-density development could also change disadvantaged areas into mixed-income areas, he said. "Our experience and research throughout the world tells us that mixed-income, mixed-use and higher-density urban areas are the most successful, and areas with a concentration of disadvantage are the most problematic."

Affluent areas of the city were "doing relatively well", he said, but the question of whether they could be further enhanced should be asked, "and a related question: are planning and other policies a barrier to such improvement?"

Mr Tierney's remarks follow the recent decision of city councillors in the southeast area of the city not to endorse the Ballsbridge local area plan because it would have allowed some high-rise development in the area. Mr Tierney said this decision did not have the effect of stopping high rise because applications would just revert to being determined under the existing development plan.