The green light has been given to a large-scale 436 apartment development in Walkinstown, Dublin, after the withdrawal of a third-party appeal against the planning permission, planning documents reveal.
The homes are set to be built in an industrial estate, with the owners of nearby commercial units fearing the development would lead to conflict between their operations and homeowners’ rights to quiet enjoyment.
The planning permission was sought by Watfore Ltd – a development and property management subsidiary of Dairygold Co-op – to demolish the existing site before building four apartment blocks ranging between six and 10 storeys in height.
The development is set to be built in the Parkmore Industrial Estate on the Long Mile Road in Walkinstown. In addition to the 436 apartments, the plans include a community library, cafe and commercial units.
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South Dublin County Council (SDCC) initially granted permission for the development in July, noting the development would represent “appropriate scale and density” for the area and would fit into the council’s plans to increase housing delivery.
A third-party appeal was launched in August by the owners of another unit in the estate. They had raised concerns that locating residential properties in an industrial estate would “lead to conflicts” between the homeowners aspirations and the “day-to-day realities of operations within a live industrial estate” among other concerns.
On Monday, SDCC was notified the appeal was withdrawn and issued a final grant of permission.
Separately, An Coimisiún Pleanála has struck down an appeal by a subsidiary of housing developer Lioncor against the rejection by Wicklow County Council of planning permission for 666 homes in Kilbride, Co. Wicklow.
The proposed development was to be part of a 1,500 home master plan with an estimated price tag of €710 million on the outskirts of Arklow. It was set to be made up of 578 semidetached and terraced houses and 88 apartments, with a creche and walking bridge across the Arklow marsh and the Avoca river.
The rejected large-scale residential development application is the second phase of the master plan, with a further 750 homes planned for the third phase of the development.
The council had cited concerns over the construction time frame of a bridge included in the plans, the number of homes representing overdevelopment of the area, the ecological impact of the project and that the development would lead to the population targets for the area being “materially exceeded”.
Following the initial rejection of planning permission by the council, an appeal was taken to An Coimisiún Pleanála. The planning inspector examining the appeal recommended the board grant permission for the development.
The report noted “significant direct positive impacts” from the development including the “substantive increase in housing stock” it would bring to the area, but noted impacts on biodiversity, traffic and cultural heritage.
In a lengthy decision, the planning commissioner went against the recommendation and rejected the appeal.
The “excessive scale of proposed development” the commissioner said, would “substantially exceed” population targets and housing requirements for the local area, with further concerns noted around the delivery of key infrastructure to enable the development, and the impact on the Arklow marsh proposed natural heritage area.
