Objections rock plans to build 671 brand new homes
TDs back locals criticising the property scheme
MORE than 165 objections have been lodged against plans to build 671 residential units in the capital.
The Strategic Housing Development (SHD) scheme, by builders Ardstone, includes a ten-storey apartment block at Milltown Park, Sandford Road, Dublin 6.
Aiming to build 671 apartments and duplex units, the scheme is made up of 604 ‘build to rent’ and 67 ‘build to sell’ dwellings across eight apartment blocks.
Dublin Bay South TDs Ivana Bacik, of Labour, and Jim O’Callaghan, of Fianna Fáil, have lodged submissions in support of locals’ opposition to the scheme, with the closing date for submissions to An Bord Pleanála now passed.
Deputy O’Callaghan has told the appeals board that the proposed development ‘is far too dense and unsustainable’.
He also said he supports residential development for the site, but added that the scale, density and height of the scheme ‘is excessive’.
The prominent Fianna Fáil backbencher stated that ‘90% of the units are being constructed on a build-to-let basis’. Deputy O’Callaghan added: ‘This will not facilitate young families who wish to settle permanently in the area.’
In her submission, Deputy Bacik said issues relating to the site are predicted to have a deleterious effect on the quality of life of residents.
On the build-to-rent component of the scheme, the TD stated that she has ‘grave reservations about the dominance of build-to-rent in Ireland’s planning system’.
Fellow Dublin Bay South TD Chris Andrews, of Sinn Féin, has also voiced his opposition to the scheme.
Deputy Andrews has told the appeals board that there is ‘no community gain’ from ‘a highly unsuitable, unsustainable and inappropriate development’.
The local objections include a number of complaints from residents’ groups. One of the community organisations to oppose
the scheme, the Ranelagh Village Improvement Group, has stated that ‘it is not acceptable that this development should accentuate the social divide in housing provision in Dublin and create a ghetto of transients with no community life or identity’.
The group also said the development ‘will form a destructive precedent for future developments in the Ranelagh area’.
The Cherryfield Avenue Upper Residents Association has also objected to the residential scheme. A 116-page submission from local residents claims that the scheme represents ‘overdevelopment’ and will have a severe material impact on the residents of the affected area. However, a consultant for Ardstone and applicants Sandford Living Ltd, Patricia Thornton, argues that the subject site ‘is ideally suited to the provision of a residential development comprising a mix of build-to-sell and build-torent units’.
Ms Thornton, of Thornton O’Connor Town Planning, stated that the principal goal of the development ‘is to open up the site to the wider community through the provision of an extensive range of public open spaces and to increase housing supply on a strategically located large plot of under-utilised land’.
She also said that the scheme ‘has been designed to accord with national and local level planning policy and will provide a high-quality living environment that provides opportunities for social interaction and integration’.
She further argued that ‘the design response provides a contemporary architectural solution that maximises the development potential of the subject lands in the interests of sustainable development’.
The 154-page planning report for the project states that ‘the build-to-rent element of the scheme will provide rental options in the area, whilst the build-to-sell units will provide an opportunity for people to purchase dwellings within the scheme – and as such the scheme will cater for a wide cohort of persons’.
An Bord Pleanála is due to make a decision on the application in January.