High Court overturns new planning permission for 657 apartments for St Anne’s Park in Raheny

 The High Court has overturned fresh planning permission for a controversial development of 657 apartments on lands near St Anne's Park in Raheny. The proposed development has so far clocked up four decisions of An Bord Pleanála and ten sets of legal proceedings “and counting”, Mr Justice Richard Humphreys noted. In a judgment on Friday, he quashed the Board’s third permission, dated August 2020, for the proposed development on former lands of St Paul's College, Sybil Hill Road, Raheny, by Crekav Trading GP Ltd, part of Pat Crean's Marlet group. In 2018, the Board granted its first permission, for 536 dwellings on the site, but that was overturned by the High Court and remitted for reconsideration.

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Planning board ‘significantly underestimated’ strategic housing work

  An Bord Pleanála told the Government it had “significantly underestimated” just how much work would be involved in dealing with applications under the controversial Strategic Housing Development (SHD) application process. The planning board said it had assigned just six inspectors to the process at first, but that this had more than doubled under the weight of work required. In a submission to the Department of Public Expenditure-led review of the National Development Plan, the board said it needed 16 extra staff to manage its workload. The agency said a major increase in manpower would be needed to deal with the “predicted surge in applications and the increased complexity of cases that come before us”.

Read the full article @ The Irish Times

Citywest housing delayed by site ownership dispute, court told

 A dispute about who owns a valuable three-acre site beside the Citywest Hotel and conference centre complex in Dublin is holding up plans for a €50 million housing development, it has been claimed in the Commercial Court. Two companies claim ownership of the land at Garter’s Lane, Saggart, which is earmarked for a development of 224 housing units for which planning permission was granted by An Bord Pleanála last December. The hotel and conference centre operators and owners, Cape Wrath Hotel Unlimited, say they own the land. They have obtained permission to build the residential development, which they say will provide significant affordable housing and deliver a large range of amenities for the local community.

Read the full article @ The Irish Times