Planning for ‘grossly excessive' Drumcondra apartments refused for second time
An Bord Pleanála has rejected plans for a 78-unit apartment development on the site of Balnagowan House on St. Mobhi Boithrin in Glasnevin, following local objections.
Rectone Developments Ltd was looking to convert the protected structure from office to residential use and to construct three apartment blocks up to three, four and five storeys on the surrounding land.
The developers had planned to build 37 one-bed apartments, 40 two-beds and one three-bed, with 32 car parking spaces on the 0.48 hectare site. The refusal upheld the earlier decision of Dublin City Council.
An Bord Pleanála found the development would 'seriously injure the amenities, diminish the development potential and depreciate the value of adjoining properties by reason of overlooking and loss of privacy'.
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Rectone had scaled back and amended a previously rejected application by Balnagowan Partnership for 112 apartments in three blocks of up to seven storeys in height, which the planning authority had found would 'seriously detract' from the protected property, be 'out of character' with the surrounding neighbourhood and could cause 'excessive overlooking' on nearby properties, among other issues.
An Bord Pleanála found the proposed mitigation measures in the current application would have 'deleterious impacts on the residential amenity of future occupants' of some of the proposed apartments.
The decision said some of the apartments would be of 'poor residential amenity' as a result of 'fritted glass or heavily screened balconies' which had been added to the application to address 'unresolved overlooking issues' in the development.
Eleven objections had been lodged against the application to Dublin City Council, including a submission from BPS Planning Consultants Ltd on behalf of the Mobhi Haven Community Association.
It complained the development was too dense and in 'clear contravention' of the Dublin City Development Plan, further complaining that computer generated images contained in the application were not an 'accurate representation of the visual impact of this scheme'.
'Residents at the Haven strenuously object to the proposed removal of these trees to facilitate a vehicular entrance to which they also strenuously object,' they said, claiming the construction would lead to the 'total decimation' of the trees on site.
Katherine O'Brien and Alan McDonough who live directly adjoining the proposed site, described the mitigation measures aimed at addressing the refusal of the first application as 'inadequate and mere tokenism'.
Leonard Gillick, a resident of the nearby, The Haven, described the development as 'grossly excessive for the site in question'.
'From the outset, a boithirin would be, in the English language, a lane,' Mr Gillick said, 'but Balnagowan Partnership and their partners and advisers deem it be a boulevard.'
The applicants were contacted for comment by The Irish Times.
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