Application for 151 houses and creche
A construction company is seeking permission from An Bord Pleanála to build 151 houses and a creche at Clonard Little across from Whitemill Industrial Estate and close to Clonard Village.
CFO Construction Limited based in Dublin has begun a consultation process with an Bord Pleanála under new Strategic Housing Development (SHD) regulations introduced last year to fast track residential projects.
The company which has a registered address at Clare Street in Dublin with the directors listed as Charlie O’Reilly Hyland and Edmund O’Reilly Hyland, is proposing to build 151 dwellings and a creche on land at Clonard Little, along with associated site works.
A preliminary application was lodged with An Bord Pleanála on January 11 and the board will now decide if there is a reasonable basis for a formal planning application. Once approval is granted and an application made, the Bord must decide whether to grant planning permission or not, within a mandatory period of 16 weeks during which time, the public, councillors and the local authority can make submissions. Wexford County Council is a party to the Strategic Housing Development consultation process which allows developers planning to build large-scale housing schemes to make their case directly to An Bord Pleanála, first in a preliminary outline and then if approved, in a full application.
The local authority is required to provide information in relation to infrastructure in an intended development area and any possible difficulties such as a tendency of a site to flooding.
Applications for developments of more than 100 homes can now potentially secure planning permission in the space of six months under the new provisions.
Decisions in the first two SHD development cases in Ireland were announced by the board on January 12 with one major student accommodation development of 512 units at UCD being granted planning permission with conditions, and the second, for 927 houses in the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown district, being refused.
A spokesman for An Bord Pleanála said it’s up to the developer to decide how much information to include in the pre-application. When permission is granted to proceed with a full application, there is a good chance of it will succeed but the option is still there to refuse the application.