Harry Crosbie’s Vicar Street hotel planning application invalidated

Dublin City planners have invalidated a planning application by a Harry Crosbie firm to develop a new 182-bedroom Vicar Street hotel because of the absence of a site notice.

Mr Crosbie’s Vicar Street Hotel Ltd lodged plans for the eight-storey hotel on Vicar Street, Dublin 8 on February 26th.

However, a site inspection carried out by a City Council planner on Thursday, March 21st, found that one of the three site notices on the site location map lodged with the application was absent.

As a result, the council has declared the planning application invalid under Article 26 of the Planning and Development Regulations.

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In its move to invalidate the application, the council pointed to planning regulations which specify that a planning site notice shall be maintained in position on the land or structure concerned for the appropriate period from the date of receipt of the planning application by the planning authority.

The hotel site is bounded by Vicar Street to the east and Molyneaux Yard to the west and is close to Mr Crosbie’s Vicar Street entertainment venue.

Mr Crosbie’s Vicar Street Hotel Ltd must now recommence the planning application process by first publishing a planning notice in a newspaper, with the company then having two weeks in which to lodge the new plans.

Mr Crosbie has previously secured planning permission for a hotel at the site, but a planning report lodged with the invalidated application said the application has been lodged as “it is not practical to commence and substantially complete the hotel” in the timeframe allowed by the prior permission, which would have expired on August 25th of this year.

Horse and carriage operator Kevin Keeler, who has worked out of Molyneaux Yard for 25-plus years, made a submission asking that the council include a management plan “to ensure my rights and my animals’ welfare is protected”.

Mr Keeler – who leases a unit at Molyneaux yard – told the council: “I feel the history of horse carriage tours is an important gain to our community and the longevity and success of this tourist attraction must be protected.”

He said “we must be guaranteed the [access] lane will remain fully open and undisturbed for the duration of the construction”.

The most recent accounts for the Crosbie company that operates Vicar Street, Liberty Venues Ltd, show that after sold-out runs by Christy Moore and Tommy Tiernan , the firm made a strong post Covid-19 recovery to record post-tax profits of €724,950 for 2022.

This follows Covid-19 related losses of €833,310 for 2021 and losses of €1 million in 2020, as the venue was closed for much of the time.

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