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Scaled-back Donnybrook student accommodation scheme approved

Donnybrook Lawn Tennis Club had protested the original plan would ‘exceed the densities of Manhattan’

The annual SCSI Irish Times Tennis Tournament at Donnybrook Lawn Tennis Club. The club had objected to the density of the student accommodation. Photograph Nick Bradshaw

Gordon Deegan
Fri May 31 2024 - 18:10

Dublin City Council has approved plans for a scaled down student accommodation scheme for Dublin 4.

The Donnybrook Lawn Tennis Club was one of the parties to object to the Red Rock Donnybrook scheme, claiming a 10 storey, 225 bed development would “exceed the densities of Manhattan”.

In a strongly worded objection the club told Dublin City Council the scheme would have an “enormous” impact on it.

“Donnybrook Tennis club is a private club and has a reasonable expectation not to be excessively overlooked. It is not a public park,” it had said.

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The Large-scale Residential Development (LRD) application was to comprise 193 bedrooms in the purpose built student accommodation and also include a cafe or retail unit.

However, in granting permission, the council ordered the omission of two floors reducing the height to an eight storey scheme.

The omission of floors three and eight also reduces the number of bedrooms from 193 to 176 and bed spaces from 225 to 170.

The scale and height of the scheme was cut back, the council said, “to protect the visual amenity of the street scene and character of the wider area”.

The 31 page planner’s report said it was the council’s opinion “there is not a strong justification for the proposed plot ratio which is significantly over the recommended standard and as such is considered to be overdevelopment as proposed”.

On the height of the scheme, the report stated that, at 10 storeys high, “the proposed structure would constitute overdevelopment of the site and would result in an unacceptable negative visual impact in this location within Donnybrook village”.

“Overall it is not considered the 10 storey structure responds in a positive way to the adjoining developments to the north and west or integrates well within this side of Donnybrook Village.”

The Council concluded that the reduced scheme “would not cause serious injury to the residential amenities of the area”.

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