Plan for 28-storey hotel at M50 junction turned down by appeals board

An Bord Pleanála has refused planning permission for ambitious plans to build a 28-storey hotel and office scheme at a major junction on the M50, on the northwestern outskirts of Dublin.

The plans by Propotron Limited involve a 459-bedroom hotel in a 28-storey block and three other office blocks ranging in height from six to 13 storeys, providing a total of 34,320sq metres in office space at Junction 6 where the N3 meets the M50 motorway near Castleknock. Propotron is owned 50/50 by Pamela Keating and Anthony Dunne.

The appeals board has concluded that, due to its scale and location on an island site at an intersection of national roads, the plan would result in an intensive overdevelopment of the site. It also ruled the scheme would be contrary to urban development and building height guidelines for planning authorities.

Other concerns were an underprovision of car-parking and a view that the development would adversely affect the strategic function, efficiency and carrying capacity of surrounding national roads and would endanger public safety by reason of traffic hazard.

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Among those who had opposed the scheme was Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman. In a joint submission with Green Party colleague, Cllr Pamela Conroy, he contended that the proposed development is overdevelopment of the site and would dominate the skyline in Dublin West. They said there were no other buildings of such scale nearby and the scheme “would have a negative impact on adjoining residential areas”.

The site is currently occupied by a Total Fitness health and leisure centre. The decision upholds a refusal of the scheme by Fingal County Council in October 2020.

The council refused planning permission on four grounds after Transport Infrastructure Ireland contended that it would have an adverse impact on the national road and associated junction and would be at variance with national policy.

In the appeal lodged in November 2020, John Fleming Architects argued that the junction of the N3 with the M50 is one of the most significant intersections in Ireland and probably the most prominent in Dublin. They said the scheme “should be judged with other cities that develop tall buildings around their periphery”.