Citywest's Jim Mansfield adopts a risky approach to the planning legislation. But so far it has paid off, writes Frank McDonald.
Mr Jim Mansfield takes risks - it's what he does for a living. He built up his Citywest Hotel complex from nothing over the past 10 years and turned it into the biggest money-spinning conference, leisure and golf resort in Dublin.
When Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael booked Citywest for their ardfheiseanna in recent years, it didn't seem to matter that much of the complex was built first and got planning permission later. Sure isn't it easy to overlook such details?
As recently illustrated by the Taoiseach's letter on behalf of the owner of an illegal quarry in Co Roscommon, calling on a planning enforcement officer to defer taking action, nobody really expects that the planning laws will be enforced.
Enforcement, as Labour's Mr Eamon Gilmore noted yesterday, is "very much the Cinderella area of planning", with very few local authorities prepared to allocate the resources needed to curb unauthorised development, whoever carries it out.
But Mr Mansfield is a man in a hurry to get things done. He employs his own construction workforce and always has a few projects on the go - whether at Citywest, Palmerstown Stud in Co Kildare or Weston Aerodrome, his airport near Lucan.
Whole bedroom blocks at Citywest were the subject of retention applications. "There was a lot happening at the time," he said in November 2002. "I would love to be able to put in for planning, but it could be a year before you get it."
A lot of developers find the planning laws frustrating, but few flout them quite so flagrantly. And he was able to do so because South Dublin County Council did not enforce the law while many of Citywest's earlier phases were under construction. At a meeting of the council in 2002, several councillors referred to Mr Mansfield's record, with one even querying whether he qualified as a "rogue developer".
For the past two years, the former county manager, Mr Frank Kavanagh, has been working for Mr Mansfield as a planning consultant; he joined the developer within days of retiring from office.
"I thought if I could get a hold of this fellow he'd know all the rules," Mr Mansfield said later. Certainly, Mr Kavanagh was in no doubt that his client's latest project - the proposed 8,000-seat convention centre at Citywest - was a risky venture.
Mr Mansfield started site development work in September, two months before the county council granted permission. When the council became aware of this, it served an enforcement notice requiring that the work should stop.
In November, immediately after the planning decision was issued, Mr Mansfield felt entitled to go ahead with building work because - as he explained yesterday - even the council was "reasonably happy that there couldn't be an appeal".
That was based on the assumption that none of the statutory bodies which had made observations on the application - the National Roads Authority, the Dublin Transportation Office or the Heritage Service - would appeal to An Bord Pleanála.
This assumption was correct, so Mr Mansfield thought he was home and dry. What he didn't anticipate was that An Taisce would be able to lodge an appeal through the back door, as it were, by invoking Article 28 of the planning regulations.
As a "prescribed body" under the Planning Act, the trust is entitled to receive copies of planning applications affecting amenities or historic buildings - in this case, an archaeological zone associated with the historic village of Saggart.
The application by HSS Ltd, Mr Mansfield's company, was not referred to An Taisce by the county council, even though it clearly was referred to the Heritage Service of the Department of the Environment (formerly Dúchas) for its observations. But what the Heritage Service had to say about the need for a qualified archaeologist to monitor ground works had been rendered superfluous by the site development works that were already under way by the time its letter was received.
Under the 2000 Planning Act, anyone making an appeal to An Bord Pleanála must first have made a written submission to the local authority involved - otherwise, the appeal will be dismissed. But "prescribed bodies" are in a different category.
The first An Taisce knew of the Citywest convention centre planning application was through a report in the Sunday Business Post, in which Mr Mansfield himself declared his intention to proceed on foot of the council's decision to grant permission.
Mr Abe Jacob, the senior council planner involved, saw the same report and contacted HSS Ltd the next day, warning that it did do so at its peril. The council followed this up by initiating legal action for non-compliance with its enforcement notice. This was done through the District Court, where the case has yet to come up for hearing. A High Court injunction could have been sought to stop the work in its tracks, but the council did not choose that route as it had just approved the scheme.
After it became clear that An Taisce had appealed - and, moreover, that its appeal was accepted by An Bord Pleanála - the council got an undertaking from HSS Ltd that construction work would cease, pending the board's final determination. The case being made is a strong one, based not just on archaeological considerations, but also landscape concerns, design issues and traffic implications. As a result, it is entirely possible that the appeals board will overturn the planning decision. This would leave Mr Mansfield and South Dublin County Council in a quandary. Indeed, the council would be under obligation to order the demolition of the steel structure erected on the site, and associated development works.
Mr Mansfield has already had his wings clipped by An Bord Pleanála, which recently ruled out plans for a major expansion of Weston Aerodrome. With a new round of tenders for construction of the long-delayed National Conference Centre due to close on January 21st, it would appear that the odds have lengthened on Mr Mansfield's daring gamble to steal a march on rival bidders.