WORK has started on one of the largest residential developments likely to be built in south Dublin in the next five years.
Cosgrave Developments will start building the first homes on the site of the former Dún Laoghaire Golf Club, in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, before the end of the year.
Close to 1,500 homes are planned there altogether, with 848 to be built on roughly half of the 78-acre site.
Thirty houses and 140 apartments are likely go on the market by the end of 2010/early 2011. Market demand will dictate the speed at which the site is developed, Cosgrave Developments’ spokesman Paul McGrath said this week.
But at a time when work on most other property developments has been suspended, and there is a huge overhang of unsold new properties across Dublin, the company is confident that there will be demand.
“It is a unique site in terms of location,” said McGrath. “Although there is little new development in Dún Laoghaire to test the market, the second-hand market is strong.”
Cosgrave Developments bought the controversial golf club site for €20 million in 2002, and received planning permission to build 848 residential units, as well as offices and retail units and an eight-acre park with a lake on the the southern part of the site, in June 2008.
This covers roughly half the 78 acres and is bounded by Glenageary Road Upper (which bisects the site) and Kill Avenue.
The developer’s plan to build close to 600 houses on the northern part of the site, closer to Dún Laoghaire, is still in the planning process.
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council is expected to announce its decision by the end of October.
The first phase of the development could take up to five years to complete. Mr McGrath said it was too early to say how much units there would sell for, but at current market rates, two-bedroom apartments could sell from around €340,000 to €375,000.
Two-bedroom apartments in a development at nearby Baker’s Corner in Dún Laoghaire sold within the past month for close to €350,000.
Ivan Gaine, managing director of Sherry FitzGerald New Homes, says that the nearest comparison is Wyckham Point in Dundrum, where one-beds are currently selling for €239,000 and two-beds from €339,000. “The Dún Laoghaire Golf Club site is a very good southside location.”
Carolyn Coyle of Savills estimates that two-bedroom apartments on the Cosgrave site could sell from €375,000.
Cosgraves is building a mix of apartments in blocks up to six storeys high and houses for all sectors of the market, including social and affordable homes, on the site.
An Bord Pleanála granted planning permission for the development subject to 58 conditions, including payment of a levy charge to provide a bus service that will link the development with Dún Laoghaire Dart station.
The decision ended a marathon planning saga. The site was rezoned in 2004 after then minister for the environment, Martin Cullen, used his powers under the 2000 Planning Act to issue a statutory directive to the council to rezone more land in the area to provide extra housing.
Cosgraves bought Ballyman Glen, a 27-hole golf course in Enniskerry, and Dún Laoghaire Golf Club moved there in August 2007.
Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
Thursday, 13 August 2009
An Bord Pleanála rejects city centre 'park in the sky'
PLANS FOR a 13-storey building topped by a “park in the sky” at the heart of the proposed Carlton Cinema development on O’Connell Street have been rejected by An Bord Pleanála.
The board has directed developers Chartered Land to significantly scale back the overall plans for the development of the 5.5-acre site in the centre of Dublin city, and omit the 13-storey building, before it makes a final decision on permission.
The scheme pays “insufficient respect” to the classical form of O’Connell Street, involves too much demolition, and conflicts with several statutory plans for the area, the board has said.
Chartered Land, which is controlled by shopping centre developer Joe O’Reilly, was granted permission for the commercial and residential development, centred on the site of the former Carlton Cinema, by Dublin City Council last December.
This was subject to a large number of appeals to An Bord Pleanála, including several from groups seeking to protect the National Monument at number 16 Moore Street which was used by the leaders of the 1916 Rising. A public hearing on the development was held last April.
The board has this week written to Chartered Land seeking 16 significant modifications, which must be submitted before November 2nd. Chief among these is the omission of the “iconic building” – a 35-metre structure topped by a sloping public park, which was to be the focal point of the scheme. This element should be removed from the plans and the redesigned buildings should not exceed the height of the Arnott’s scheme – a neighbouring development for which the board has approved a seven-storey scale.
Despite having been granted permission from Dublin City Council, the board notes that the development is in conflict with several of the council’s statutory plans including the Architectural Conservation Area designation. The proposed scheme would disrupt the historic street pattern and was “over-scaled” in relation to the historic buildings around it.
The revised development should retain the original street pattern of the area, the extent of demolition should be reduced, and the existing buildings on Henry Street and Moore Street should be substantially retained.
The board also wants a redesign of the entrance to the development from O’Connell Street. The current proposals are for a 35-metre wide entrance partially fronted by a screen of thin, paired columns topped by a flat canopy, with the entrance buildings cut on a diagonal representing a funnel shape.
This entrance should be reduced to the width of Henry Street and set at right angles to O’Connell Street following “a traditional format” the board said. The entrance buildings should also use more traditional materials it said. Parking for the development should be reduced from 1,100 spaces to not more than 500.
While the letter imposes huge changes, it does state that the site is “general suitable for the type of development proposed”, suggesting that permission would be granted if the necessary modifications are made.
Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
The board has directed developers Chartered Land to significantly scale back the overall plans for the development of the 5.5-acre site in the centre of Dublin city, and omit the 13-storey building, before it makes a final decision on permission.
The scheme pays “insufficient respect” to the classical form of O’Connell Street, involves too much demolition, and conflicts with several statutory plans for the area, the board has said.
Chartered Land, which is controlled by shopping centre developer Joe O’Reilly, was granted permission for the commercial and residential development, centred on the site of the former Carlton Cinema, by Dublin City Council last December.
This was subject to a large number of appeals to An Bord Pleanála, including several from groups seeking to protect the National Monument at number 16 Moore Street which was used by the leaders of the 1916 Rising. A public hearing on the development was held last April.
The board has this week written to Chartered Land seeking 16 significant modifications, which must be submitted before November 2nd. Chief among these is the omission of the “iconic building” – a 35-metre structure topped by a sloping public park, which was to be the focal point of the scheme. This element should be removed from the plans and the redesigned buildings should not exceed the height of the Arnott’s scheme – a neighbouring development for which the board has approved a seven-storey scale.
Despite having been granted permission from Dublin City Council, the board notes that the development is in conflict with several of the council’s statutory plans including the Architectural Conservation Area designation. The proposed scheme would disrupt the historic street pattern and was “over-scaled” in relation to the historic buildings around it.
The revised development should retain the original street pattern of the area, the extent of demolition should be reduced, and the existing buildings on Henry Street and Moore Street should be substantially retained.
The board also wants a redesign of the entrance to the development from O’Connell Street. The current proposals are for a 35-metre wide entrance partially fronted by a screen of thin, paired columns topped by a flat canopy, with the entrance buildings cut on a diagonal representing a funnel shape.
This entrance should be reduced to the width of Henry Street and set at right angles to O’Connell Street following “a traditional format” the board said. The entrance buildings should also use more traditional materials it said. Parking for the development should be reduced from 1,100 spaces to not more than 500.
While the letter imposes huge changes, it does state that the site is “general suitable for the type of development proposed”, suggesting that permission would be granted if the necessary modifications are made.
Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
AIB plan opposed by An Taisce
AN TAISCE has warned of “irreparable damage” to one of Galway’s most historic quarters, following a decision to grant Allied Irish Banks (AIB) permission to redevelop part of Lynch’s Castle.
An Taisce’s Galway branch is to appeal the plan, which involves demolition of later additions to the medieval building on the corner of Abbeygate Street and construction of a new three-storey building from the castle’s northwest wall.
The new building will include a “glazed facade”, and the planning application includes removing existing buttresses and altering and repairing the castle, which is a protected structure.
The concept has been opposed by Galway City Council’s heritage officer, Jim Higgins, who points out tourists would never be able to photo the detail of Lynch’s Castle, due to the reflection of so much glass on the adjoining building.
Lynch’s Castle was recorded on the 1651 pictorial map of Galway and is the only surviving building of its type among mansions owned by the city’s 14 “tribes”. Its carved facade bears the arms of King Henry VIII, and it has been described as an excellent example of Irish Gothic architecture.
Mr Higgins has argued any new structure should not impinge on the castle, and the frontage should be in keeping with the quarter, which includes Century Buildings.
He compares AIB’s approach to that taken by the Revenue Commissioners in Druid’s Lane, where the Red Earl’s Hall owned by Richard de Burgo was excavated and a modern building “designed around” the rich archaeology.
“Shoebox excavations of the castle site, which the AIB is proposing, are not sufficient. This is a sensitive area, which may include remnants of the Lynch family mansion, and it needs to be resolved archaeologically first,” he says.
An Taisce’s Galway branch chair, Derrick Hambleton, says an appeal has been lodged with An Bord Pleanála. An Taisce believes the design is “not sufficiently well-thought out, given the proximity of such an iconic medieval building”, he says. “The balance between the preservation of the old, against the development of the new is a delicate one and, while we would not wish to see a row of pastiche, replica shopfronts which might be thought to match the buildings on the opposite side of Abbeygate Street, we are concerned about the overuse of glass,” he said in his objection.
An Taisce “believes that insufficient weight has been given to the advice of the city’s own heritage officer”, Mr Hambleton said, and he supports Mr Higgins’s call for a complete archaeological licensed dig of the whole site.
Some 55 per cent of overseas visitors stated “historic towns and cities” were a primary motivating factor in choosing Ireland as a holiday destination in a 2006 survey of visitor attitudes by Fáilte Ireland, Mr Hambleton pointed out.
AIB declined to comment and said it was a matter for the planning authorities.
Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
An Taisce’s Galway branch is to appeal the plan, which involves demolition of later additions to the medieval building on the corner of Abbeygate Street and construction of a new three-storey building from the castle’s northwest wall.
The new building will include a “glazed facade”, and the planning application includes removing existing buttresses and altering and repairing the castle, which is a protected structure.
The concept has been opposed by Galway City Council’s heritage officer, Jim Higgins, who points out tourists would never be able to photo the detail of Lynch’s Castle, due to the reflection of so much glass on the adjoining building.
Lynch’s Castle was recorded on the 1651 pictorial map of Galway and is the only surviving building of its type among mansions owned by the city’s 14 “tribes”. Its carved facade bears the arms of King Henry VIII, and it has been described as an excellent example of Irish Gothic architecture.
Mr Higgins has argued any new structure should not impinge on the castle, and the frontage should be in keeping with the quarter, which includes Century Buildings.
He compares AIB’s approach to that taken by the Revenue Commissioners in Druid’s Lane, where the Red Earl’s Hall owned by Richard de Burgo was excavated and a modern building “designed around” the rich archaeology.
“Shoebox excavations of the castle site, which the AIB is proposing, are not sufficient. This is a sensitive area, which may include remnants of the Lynch family mansion, and it needs to be resolved archaeologically first,” he says.
An Taisce’s Galway branch chair, Derrick Hambleton, says an appeal has been lodged with An Bord Pleanála. An Taisce believes the design is “not sufficiently well-thought out, given the proximity of such an iconic medieval building”, he says. “The balance between the preservation of the old, against the development of the new is a delicate one and, while we would not wish to see a row of pastiche, replica shopfronts which might be thought to match the buildings on the opposite side of Abbeygate Street, we are concerned about the overuse of glass,” he said in his objection.
An Taisce “believes that insufficient weight has been given to the advice of the city’s own heritage officer”, Mr Hambleton said, and he supports Mr Higgins’s call for a complete archaeological licensed dig of the whole site.
Some 55 per cent of overseas visitors stated “historic towns and cities” were a primary motivating factor in choosing Ireland as a holiday destination in a 2006 survey of visitor attitudes by Fáilte Ireland, Mr Hambleton pointed out.
AIB declined to comment and said it was a matter for the planning authorities.
Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Clare council refuses mast on grounds of air safety
CLARE CO Council has refused planning permission to Hutchinson 3G Ireland Ltd to construct a 120ft mast near Cratloe in southeast Co Clare due to fears it would endanger or interfere with aircraft and pose a risk of a major accident.
In making the decision the council took into account an objection by the Irish Aviation Authority against the development, which was proposed for a site six miles from Shannon airport.
This year Hutchinson 3G Ireland Ltd lodged plans for the development to extend broadband coverage in the area. The six radio dishes on the mast were also required to connect with national broadband scheme sites in the west of Ireland.
The council said the proposed development would endanger or interfere with aircraft safety, the safety of navigation and would pose a risk of a major accident.
Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
In making the decision the council took into account an objection by the Irish Aviation Authority against the development, which was proposed for a site six miles from Shannon airport.
This year Hutchinson 3G Ireland Ltd lodged plans for the development to extend broadband coverage in the area. The six radio dishes on the mast were also required to connect with national broadband scheme sites in the west of Ireland.
The council said the proposed development would endanger or interfere with aircraft safety, the safety of navigation and would pose a risk of a major accident.
Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
Random sculpture and hideous orbs spoil Merrion Square Park
The inclusion of Merrion Square Park in a European network of historic gardens belies its current hotchpotch design, writes Environment Editor FRANK McDONALD
LAST APRIL, Dublin City Council applied to have Merrion Square Park included in the European Garden Heritage Network of 100 parks and gardens around northwestern Europe, which was set up to “preserve, develop and promote gardens of historic interest”.
Eibhlin Byrne, then lord mayor, said she believed that “our beautiful, well-maintained parks . . . rank among the very finest in Europe”. That’s undoubtedly true of Phoenix Park and St Stephen’s Green – both in the hands of the Office of Public Works (OPW) – but it certainly cannot be said, in my opinion, of the mess that is Merrion Square.
Incredibly, the advisory board of the European Garden Heritage Network decided to admit both Merrion Square Park and St Anne’s Park in Raheny. It is difficult to imagine how this decision could have been made if members of the board had actually walked through Merrion Square.
As planning consultant Fergal MacCabe complained in 2004, when the council’s parks department looked as if it might get its hands on Fitzwilliam Square, the original character and design of Merrion Square Park has been “entirely destroyed by inappropriate planting . . . myriad pieces of second-rate sculpture [and] fussy municipal flower beds”.
He also referred to the “semi-tombstones commemorating tree planting by minor dignitaries” and said the park was “simply an incoherent repository of fatuous, opportunistic, politically correct kitsch – clear testimony to the inability of the parks department to design and manage a significant historic urban park of this kind”.
A public information panel just inside the gate from Merrion Square East explains that the park was leased to the city council in 1974 by the Archdiocese of Dublin, which had acquired it in 1930 as the site for a Catholic cathedral, and is officially called Archbishop Ryan Park, after the late Dermot Ryan, then archbishop.
It also notes that the 12 acres enclosed by railings in the early 19th century were originally laid out by John Ensor, an assistant to Richard Cassels, architect of Leinster House, in the “Jardin Anglaise” (sic) style, with a double line of trees on the perimeter. This was the parkland style of the 18th century that replaced earlier, more formal layouts. “Now,” as the information panel says, “the park hosts an interesting array of sculpture, a colourful collection of gas lamps of Old Dublin and a children’s playground as well as a colourful array of plants [including] seasonal displays of bedding plants . . . Old meets new and the park, once the preserve of the privileged, now offers amenities for all ages.”
The parks department is obviously keen on “arrays”. By far the most inappropriate is the “array” of old lamp standards, culled from the city’s streets and re-erected here in haphazard fashion. Of the 25 standards, only a few appear to have had gas lamps, most have no lightbulbs, and of those with glass lanterns nearly all have broken panes. Some are relics of an era when Dublin had real local government, with cast-iron bases stamped “Rathmines Urban District Council 1900” or “Pembroke Electric Supply”. Other old standards are topped by lamps of much more recent vintage, such as the hideous orbs that lit the Ha’penny Bridge in the 1980s, when we knew no better.
Narrow pathways and lawns are bordered by limestone street setts, also culled from the city’s streets and inappropriately re-used in the park. The pathways are lined, often on both sides, by dense shrubbery that has to be clipped regularly. The centrepiece is a formal garden featuring a pair of bushy golden conifers surrounded by flowerbeds; it is like a poor man’s version of the equivalent space in St Stephen’s Green. A tall bronze throne, designed by Caroline Greene and dedicated to the memory of comedian Dermot Morgan, occupies pride of place in this setting.
There is random sculpture everywhere, including the most recent addition – a monument to members of the Defence Forces killed in action, unveiled last November. Designed by sculptor Brian King, this bizarre pyramid – just four metres high – stands in its own formal space, shoe-horned into the square near the southwestern corner. Each side has a strip-glass panel through which you can peer into a chamber containing four waxen-looking bronze figures standing to attention around an eternal flame. It is surrounded by six concrete benches, where relatives and members of the public can reflect on the sacrifices made by our soldiers.
John Devlin, one of only two objectors to the erection of this monument when it was proposed in 2007, said it would “upset the harmony and peaceful tranquillity of the park” and should be located somewhere else. Its scale was also wrong – “appropriate for a provincial town, to honour local dead, but not a national memorial”.
Trees and shrubbery were removed at the northwestern corner of the park in 1997 to make room for Barry Osborne’s post-modern statue of Oscar Wilde, in a louche pose reclining on a rock, with some of his pithy sayings (“I drink to keep body and soul apart”) on a pair of pillars in front. But at least the location is opposite his father’s house.
The fine neo-classical Rutland Fountain, dating from 1790, had its stonework cleaned recently at a cost of €230,000. But the two bronze lion heads that should be pouring water into the conch shell beneath remain dry and the whole monument has been defaced, and rendered meaningless, by the railings strung across the front several years ago.
The fountain, erected to commemorate the fourth duke of Rutland, a short-lived lord lieutenant of Ireland, is the park’s only original architectural feature from the 18th century. Yet its unadorned rear elevation is partially obscured from inside the park by a pointless podium (and more shrubbery), reached by a broad flight of seven steps.
One of the few attractive features of the park is a relatively new heather garden on its northern side, beyond the bedraggled-looking children’s playground with its standard, but decaying, equipment. Kids have more fun climbing up and running down the grassy mound near the southeastern corner, which conceals a disused air-raid shelter.
For the past 20 years, the OPW has been reinstating the historic tree-planting of Phoenix Park, based on maps of the original layout. It is beyond time that Dublin City Council’s parks department begins treating Merrion Square Park with the respect it deserves and follows this example by planting a double line of trees on the perimeter.
The remarkable integrity of the square’s Georgian terraces, compared to the hotchpotch of buildings gathered around St Stephen’s Green, demands that the park should be reinstated as a historically accurate Jardin Anglais – with all of the flowerbeds, shrubbery, undergrowth and miscellaneous lamp standards stripped out.
And if young lads want to play football there, let them.
Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
LAST APRIL, Dublin City Council applied to have Merrion Square Park included in the European Garden Heritage Network of 100 parks and gardens around northwestern Europe, which was set up to “preserve, develop and promote gardens of historic interest”.
Eibhlin Byrne, then lord mayor, said she believed that “our beautiful, well-maintained parks . . . rank among the very finest in Europe”. That’s undoubtedly true of Phoenix Park and St Stephen’s Green – both in the hands of the Office of Public Works (OPW) – but it certainly cannot be said, in my opinion, of the mess that is Merrion Square.
Incredibly, the advisory board of the European Garden Heritage Network decided to admit both Merrion Square Park and St Anne’s Park in Raheny. It is difficult to imagine how this decision could have been made if members of the board had actually walked through Merrion Square.
As planning consultant Fergal MacCabe complained in 2004, when the council’s parks department looked as if it might get its hands on Fitzwilliam Square, the original character and design of Merrion Square Park has been “entirely destroyed by inappropriate planting . . . myriad pieces of second-rate sculpture [and] fussy municipal flower beds”.
He also referred to the “semi-tombstones commemorating tree planting by minor dignitaries” and said the park was “simply an incoherent repository of fatuous, opportunistic, politically correct kitsch – clear testimony to the inability of the parks department to design and manage a significant historic urban park of this kind”.
A public information panel just inside the gate from Merrion Square East explains that the park was leased to the city council in 1974 by the Archdiocese of Dublin, which had acquired it in 1930 as the site for a Catholic cathedral, and is officially called Archbishop Ryan Park, after the late Dermot Ryan, then archbishop.
It also notes that the 12 acres enclosed by railings in the early 19th century were originally laid out by John Ensor, an assistant to Richard Cassels, architect of Leinster House, in the “Jardin Anglaise” (sic) style, with a double line of trees on the perimeter. This was the parkland style of the 18th century that replaced earlier, more formal layouts. “Now,” as the information panel says, “the park hosts an interesting array of sculpture, a colourful collection of gas lamps of Old Dublin and a children’s playground as well as a colourful array of plants [including] seasonal displays of bedding plants . . . Old meets new and the park, once the preserve of the privileged, now offers amenities for all ages.”
The parks department is obviously keen on “arrays”. By far the most inappropriate is the “array” of old lamp standards, culled from the city’s streets and re-erected here in haphazard fashion. Of the 25 standards, only a few appear to have had gas lamps, most have no lightbulbs, and of those with glass lanterns nearly all have broken panes. Some are relics of an era when Dublin had real local government, with cast-iron bases stamped “Rathmines Urban District Council 1900” or “Pembroke Electric Supply”. Other old standards are topped by lamps of much more recent vintage, such as the hideous orbs that lit the Ha’penny Bridge in the 1980s, when we knew no better.
Narrow pathways and lawns are bordered by limestone street setts, also culled from the city’s streets and inappropriately re-used in the park. The pathways are lined, often on both sides, by dense shrubbery that has to be clipped regularly. The centrepiece is a formal garden featuring a pair of bushy golden conifers surrounded by flowerbeds; it is like a poor man’s version of the equivalent space in St Stephen’s Green. A tall bronze throne, designed by Caroline Greene and dedicated to the memory of comedian Dermot Morgan, occupies pride of place in this setting.
There is random sculpture everywhere, including the most recent addition – a monument to members of the Defence Forces killed in action, unveiled last November. Designed by sculptor Brian King, this bizarre pyramid – just four metres high – stands in its own formal space, shoe-horned into the square near the southwestern corner. Each side has a strip-glass panel through which you can peer into a chamber containing four waxen-looking bronze figures standing to attention around an eternal flame. It is surrounded by six concrete benches, where relatives and members of the public can reflect on the sacrifices made by our soldiers.
John Devlin, one of only two objectors to the erection of this monument when it was proposed in 2007, said it would “upset the harmony and peaceful tranquillity of the park” and should be located somewhere else. Its scale was also wrong – “appropriate for a provincial town, to honour local dead, but not a national memorial”.
Trees and shrubbery were removed at the northwestern corner of the park in 1997 to make room for Barry Osborne’s post-modern statue of Oscar Wilde, in a louche pose reclining on a rock, with some of his pithy sayings (“I drink to keep body and soul apart”) on a pair of pillars in front. But at least the location is opposite his father’s house.
The fine neo-classical Rutland Fountain, dating from 1790, had its stonework cleaned recently at a cost of €230,000. But the two bronze lion heads that should be pouring water into the conch shell beneath remain dry and the whole monument has been defaced, and rendered meaningless, by the railings strung across the front several years ago.
The fountain, erected to commemorate the fourth duke of Rutland, a short-lived lord lieutenant of Ireland, is the park’s only original architectural feature from the 18th century. Yet its unadorned rear elevation is partially obscured from inside the park by a pointless podium (and more shrubbery), reached by a broad flight of seven steps.
One of the few attractive features of the park is a relatively new heather garden on its northern side, beyond the bedraggled-looking children’s playground with its standard, but decaying, equipment. Kids have more fun climbing up and running down the grassy mound near the southeastern corner, which conceals a disused air-raid shelter.
For the past 20 years, the OPW has been reinstating the historic tree-planting of Phoenix Park, based on maps of the original layout. It is beyond time that Dublin City Council’s parks department begins treating Merrion Square Park with the respect it deserves and follows this example by planting a double line of trees on the perimeter.
The remarkable integrity of the square’s Georgian terraces, compared to the hotchpotch of buildings gathered around St Stephen’s Green, demands that the park should be reinstated as a historically accurate Jardin Anglais – with all of the flowerbeds, shrubbery, undergrowth and miscellaneous lamp standards stripped out.
And if young lads want to play football there, let them.
Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
Monday, 10 August 2009
Board defers decision on Corrib gas pipeline
AN BORD Pleanála has deferred a decision due this week on Shell EP Ireland’s application to modify the Corrib gas onshore pipeline route.
The application for a new route and for compulsory acquisition orders to private land on the 9km route was made under the Strategic Infrastructure Act, and resulted in a 19-day oral hearing chaired by inspector Martin Nolan.
An initial decision date had been set as August 10th. However, the appeals board has informed all parties that the decisions will be made on or before October 23rd next, “due to the complex nature of the case”.
Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
The application for a new route and for compulsory acquisition orders to private land on the 9km route was made under the Strategic Infrastructure Act, and resulted in a 19-day oral hearing chaired by inspector Martin Nolan.
An initial decision date had been set as August 10th. However, the appeals board has informed all parties that the decisions will be made on or before October 23rd next, “due to the complex nature of the case”.
Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
Sunday, 9 August 2009
Work starts on major Cosgrave development
Work has started on a major development at the site of the former Dun Laoghaire golf club in south County Dublin - one of the few active building projects in the country.
Cosgrave Developments plans to build 856 residential units - made up of apartments and houses - on the site, as well as offices, retail units and an eight-acre park.
The firm was granted permission for the development of the 78-acre site by An Bord Pleanála last year.
Paul McGrath, a spokesman for Cosgrave Developments, said the decision to start building showed the confidence that the company had in the site’s potential.
‘‘It is a bit of a toe in the water,” McGrath said, adding that it was the only active residential project the company had under way. ‘‘It is a great site in an area that is performing reasonably well in terms of secondhand house sales.”
McGrath said that groundwork had started on the site and the first phase of the project would be finished ‘‘at the back end of 2010’’. Prices for the properties have not yet been set.
Cosgrave recently applied for planning permission for further development of the site, which is off Glenageary Road Upper and Eglinton Park. The firm lodged a planning application with Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council for 577 apartments, 28 houses and a creche.
Based on the planning application for the first phase of development, when almost 450 parties lodged objections, the recent application is likely to be contested.
Cosgrave Developments bought the golf club site in 2002. It was reported to have paid €20 million to the members, and the deal also included a land swap, with Cosgrave providing a 27-hole golf course, clubhouse and facilities on a 300-acre site near Enniskerry, Co Wicklow.
The Dun Laoghaire lands were rezoned in 2004 after the then minister for the environment, Martin Cullen, issued a statutory directive to the council to rezone more land in the area to provide extra housing. Cosgrave Developments is owned by brothers Joe, Peter and Michael Cosgrave, and has built several large-scale projects over the past three decades.
Sunday Business Post
www.buckplanning.ie
Cosgrave Developments plans to build 856 residential units - made up of apartments and houses - on the site, as well as offices, retail units and an eight-acre park.
The firm was granted permission for the development of the 78-acre site by An Bord Pleanála last year.
Paul McGrath, a spokesman for Cosgrave Developments, said the decision to start building showed the confidence that the company had in the site’s potential.
‘‘It is a bit of a toe in the water,” McGrath said, adding that it was the only active residential project the company had under way. ‘‘It is a great site in an area that is performing reasonably well in terms of secondhand house sales.”
McGrath said that groundwork had started on the site and the first phase of the project would be finished ‘‘at the back end of 2010’’. Prices for the properties have not yet been set.
Cosgrave recently applied for planning permission for further development of the site, which is off Glenageary Road Upper and Eglinton Park. The firm lodged a planning application with Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council for 577 apartments, 28 houses and a creche.
Based on the planning application for the first phase of development, when almost 450 parties lodged objections, the recent application is likely to be contested.
Cosgrave Developments bought the golf club site in 2002. It was reported to have paid €20 million to the members, and the deal also included a land swap, with Cosgrave providing a 27-hole golf course, clubhouse and facilities on a 300-acre site near Enniskerry, Co Wicklow.
The Dun Laoghaire lands were rezoned in 2004 after the then minister for the environment, Martin Cullen, issued a statutory directive to the council to rezone more land in the area to provide extra housing. Cosgrave Developments is owned by brothers Joe, Peter and Michael Cosgrave, and has built several large-scale projects over the past three decades.
Sunday Business Post
www.buckplanning.ie
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