An Bord Pleanála grants permission for Finglas build-to-rent scheme

An Bord Pleanála has given permission for a contentious 314-unit build-to-rent apartment scheme at a former factory site at Jamestown Road in north Dublin.

The appeals board approved the Jamestown Village Ltd plan despite local opposition and a recommendation by Dublin City Council to refuse planning permission.

The scheme — originally 321 units comprised of 211 two-bed units and 110 one-bed units across five blocks rising to six storeys — is located 850m north of Finglas village and about 1km from the M50/N2 junction on the north west.

The appeals board found the scheme would not seriously injure the residential or visual amenities of the area and would be acceptable in terms of urban design, height and quantum of development. It ordered the omission of seven units from the initial 321 units proposed.

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Dublin City Council planners recommended the scheme be refused on three grounds, stating that the proposal was piecemeal and ad hoc in nature.

The council said the applicant had failed to demonstrate “that the future occupants of the scheme would enjoy an enhanced standard of amenity and would seek to remain tenants in the longer term”.

The board inspector in the case, Elaine Power, shared the council’s concerns over the build-to-rent amenities. However, Ms Power said this concern could be addressed by way of condition to omit the apartments at the ground-floor level of one block and provide additional residential amenity space.

One of those to object was co-leader of the Social Democrats Róisín Shortall.

Ms Shortall told the appeals board that the build-to-rent model of residential development “with lower standards than ordinary developments, is profit-driven and does little to address our housing crisis”.

Ms Shortall said she strongly objected to the scheme and said there would be no three- or four-bed units provided in the development.

“While smaller units are needed in certain parts of the city, demand for such a proliferation does not exist in Finglas,” she said.