Council approves plan for 785 apartments in Fairview despite local opposition

Dublin City Council has given the green light to plans for 785 apartments on the grounds of St Vincent’s Hospital in Fairview in Dublin 3 despite local opposition.

The council granted planning permission for the €300 million scheme after reducing the number of units from 811 to 785 by reducing the highest bloc from 13 to 11 storeys.

Those opposed to the scheme included a number of residents groups – the Griffith Court Residents Association, the Grace Park Wood Residents Association and the residents of the eastern end of the Richmond Rd area.

The scheme on the 9.47 hectares (23.4-acre) site is being developed by Royalton Group, a British property development firm, in partnership with the board of St Vincent’s Hospital.

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Under the terms of the deal, Royalton is to construct a new 73-bedroom mental health facility for the hospital, which is located in a listed building that is more than 100 years old.

As part of 39 conditions attached to the permission, the council is requiring that the developer pays €8.7 million in planning contributions towards public infrastructure.

Samantha Magee, acting secretary of the Grace Park Wood Residents Association, told the council that the application “should be rejected because it is a poorly conceived design which impacts adversely on the surrounding area and people”.

Residents of Lomond Avenue, Fairview told the council that overall “we fear the proposed development, unless significantly reduced, will negatively impact the quality of life of current residents and prospective new ones should they occupy this development as well as the hospital patients”.

“This will cause a detrimental long term impact and we urge you to consider a significant reduction to the residential part of the scheme.”

The new hospital is expected to cost around €50 million to build and to fund the hospital project, the hospital board is to transfer around 5.26 hectares of undeveloped land on the campus to Royalton for the apartment scheme plan.

As part of its Part V social housing obligations, the developers were planning to sell 174 apartments – or 21 per cent of the total number of units – to Dublin City Council and put an indicative price tag of €87.72 million on the units.

With the reduction in the number of units, the number of Part V units will reduce to 164 or 165.

Planning consultant for the scheme, John Spain, told the council that overall the lands “are ideally located for a sustainable mixed use development, which provides a new hospital, providing mental health services, supporting residential development and significant public open space, in an inner suburban location”.