A legal challenge by Meath County Council over the failure of An Bord Pleanála to require that some 84 homes in a planned 420 unit housing scheme outside Navan be allocated to the council for social and affordable housing, is to be heard in the commercial division of the High Court.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly yesterday admitted the action to the commercial court list and adjourned it for hearing on October 11th next.
The judge was told An Bord Pleanála is not opposing the council's application to quash its grant of permission for the scheme because of the failure to incorporate the social housing requirement which failure, the board has said, was due to an administrative error.
However, the council's action is being resisted by Taggart Homes Ireland Ltd, owner of the lands in question.
An issue in the proceedings will be whether the delay in challenging the board's decision has disentitled the council to the orders it is seeking from the courts.
The court heard that if the council had been allocated some 20 per cent of the homes, as required by Part V of the Local Government Planning and Development Act 2000, the value of those homes would be up to €10 million.
The council had refused to grant permission for the proposed development of some 425 residential units, mainly two storey houses, at Johnstown some 2.5km southeast of Navan in October 2004 after finding the development would be premature to the upgrading of sewage facilities in the area.
That refusal was appealed to An Bord Pleanála which in May 2005 granted permission subject to certain conditions.
Those conditions did not include a requirement that 20 per cent of the units be allocated to the council for social housing or alternatively land or alternatively a financial contribution.
The council claims the effect of that omission is that it would be unable to enforce Part V in relation to the proposed development.