The High Court has reserved judgment on a lengthy legal challenge to the making of a compulsory purchase order over a valuable site in central Dublin, extending from the former Carlton cinema on O'Connell Street.
The challenge was brought by Mr Paul Clinton, an architect and member of the Carlton group which had secured planning permission to develop the site in late 1999. However, in December 2001 Dublin City Council made a compulsory purchase order (CPO) regarding the site which was confirmed by An Bord Pleanála in May 2003 after an oral hearing.
Mr Clinton, Gate Lodge, Ranelagh, Dublin, claims the CPO has breached his constitutional right to property and was made without the council identifying how it proposed to develop the site. He argues the Carlton group was never given a proper opportunity to progress its proposed development.
Dublin City Council has claimed it made the CPO after coming to the view that the Carlton group had neither the finance nor development expertise to advance the project.
An Bord Pleanála has also argued that there was substantial material to support its decision to confirm the CPO. It has disputed arguments that the council had made the CPO without identifying what type of development was required for the site.
The planning board said the development was intended to implement the Integrated Area Plan for O'Connell Street and included a pedestrian walkway from the Carlton site back on to Moore Street, and envisaged hotels, street bar cafés and quality restaurants, with a preference for high quality retail outlets.
It was not the law that the council, before it could make a CPO regarding such a site, had to identify in detail a scheme of development and also the developer, it was argued.