The developers of a proposed €20 million five-star hotel complex in Kinsale said yesterday they are considering selling the harbour frontage site after An Bord Pleanála overturned a town council decision to grant the project planning permission. Barry Roche, Southern Correspondent, reports.
Kinsale Harbour Lodge Ltd got planning permission from Kinsale Town Council in October 2003 for shops and a 34-bed hotel complex with bars, restaurant and leisure centre facilities at Long Quay/Pier Road, in the heart of Kinsale town.
But both An Taisce and local businessman Mr Tony Boland had appealed the decision to grant planning.
Yesterday, An Bord Pleanála ruled that the four-storey development on the one-acre site was unsuitable and overturned the planning permission.
"It is considered that, by reason of its scale, bulk, massing, design, extent of footprint and relationship to the waterfront, the proposed development would be visually intrusive, out of character with the pattern of development in the area and incompatible with the urban grain of the town centre," said An Bord Pleanála.It concluded that the development would "seriously injure the visual amenities of the town and would be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area".
An Bord Pleanála also expressed concerns about the failure of the proposal to include a second basement level for car parking.
The company behind the development is owned by Mr John and Mr Patrick O'Connor, brothers who developed the Old Head of Kinsale golf course. Project manager for the development, Mr Jim Scannell, said yesterday that they were surprised by An Bord Pleanála's overturning of the planning permission.
"We're shocked, to be honest. We've gone down so many roads on this in terms of making modifications and yet it doesn't seem to satisfy An Bord Pleanála."
He said they are now considering selling the site which should be worth around €5 million.
However An Taisce's heritage officer, Mr Ian Lumley, said the application by the company was just part of a growing trend where developers made serial applications for planning without ever addressing the original reasons why their development had been refused and, in this case, they had made only minor alterations to their original proposal.
"This development had been granted planning permission before by Kinsale Town Council and An Bord Pleanála also overturned that. All that's happened is that the number of bedrooms were reduced through converting them to en suites, but the size of the development was virtually the same, so very little had changed."
He added: "We feel vindicated by this decision and we feel satisfied that it vindicates the integrity of the planning process. This second application should never have got this far because it failed to address the original grounds for refusal - the sheer scale of the project on what was the site of an old fish market."
Mr Tony Boland said that his concern about the proposal was primarily relating to its scale and size. "It's a keynote site in Kinsale. It deserves a good development and I would be hoping that it would still get a suitable development in keeping with the site."