Planning free-for-all has developers reaching for the sky

The characteristic human scale of Dublin is now more in peril than at any time in its history, and the same is true of the State’s “second-tier” cities of Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford, as well as numerous smaller towns – all due to ultra-liberal planning guidelines that effectively permit developers to build whatever they like wherever they like. The mandatory guidelines on building heights imposed by Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government Eoghan Murphy last December have inaugurated an unprecedented free-for-all that looks certain to result in the relatively low-rise skylines of our urban areas being sacrificed on the altar of profit or hubris, with random eruptions of high-rise buildings all over the place.

Read the full article @ The Irish Times

Fast track planning permission being sought for 17-storey apartment tower in Cork city

Fast track planning permission is being sought this week for a 17-storey apartment tower at a density of 454 units per hectare, on Cork city’s South Link Road, on a compact site previously a rail track goods yard and sidings. The application for 118 apartments aimed at the Build to Rent (BTR) sector will be made directly to An Bord Pleanala for the development, on a 0.26 hectare site, linking to Rockborough Road by Bord Gais’s HQ, and to the South Link pedestrian bridge linking to Hibernian Road towards Anglesea Street. Being christened Railway Gardens and promoted by the Scally family who own the site and the adjoining business OB Heating, the site previously had planning permission granted in 2008 for offices. 

Read the full article @ The Irish Examiner

New plaza approved for north side of Ha’penny Bridge

The creation of a new pedestrian plaza for Dublin beside the Ha’penny Bridge on Liffey Street, has been approved by city councillors, despite objections from car park owners. The council earlier this year decided to draw up plans for a new plaza on the northside of the city following the refusal by An Bord Pleanála of the College Green plaza. A planned water feature incorporating a line of water jets, or mini fountains, has been scrapped after the council determined it would be “visually incongruous” and “impeding to the movement of pedestrians”.

Read the full article @ The Irish Times

Removal of on-street parking in BusConnects plans ‘problematic’

Designers of the BusConnects plan should seek to limit the removal of on-street parking in residential areas, Dublin City Council’s city planning officer has told the National Transport Authority (NTA). In a submission to the NTA, John O’Hara said the removal of on-street parking under the plans, particularly in residential areas where there is a reliance on such parking, is “problematic”.

Read the full article @ The Irish Times

Bord Pleanála rejects appeal by Josepha Madigan to relocate turf-cutters

Plans by the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan, to relocate turf-cutters to allow them extract peat from a raised bog in Co Kildare have been rejected because the activity would add to greenhouse gas emissions. An Bord Pleanála has turned down an appeal by the Minister against a decision of Kildare County Council to refuse her department planning permission for a proposal to allow turf-cutting at Coolree Bog near Prosperous, Co Kildare.

Read the full article @ Irish Times