Balgriffin residents feel ‘betrayal’ over plan for 730-unit Cairn apartment scheme

Residents at Parkside, Balgriffin, in north Dublin feel “shock” and “betrayal” over plans by Cairn Homes to construct a 730-unit apartment scheme for the area, according to a local resident.

Robert Linnane is one of 88 local residents to object to Cairn's Strategic Housing Development (SHD) plan for a site east of Belmayne Avenue, Parkside, in Dublin 13.

The new apartment block scheme would reach to nine storeys and is the fifth phase of the Parkside development. Consultants for Cairn Homes have told An Bord Pleanála that to date, of the 846 permitted units, 534 have been sold and occupied.

The new scheme is comprised of three studios, 315 one-bed apartments, 376 two-bedroom apartments and 36 three- bedroom apartments across five apartment blocks and two duplex blocks.

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However, local resident Mr Linnane said the residents of Parkside, many of whom only purchased their homes in the past 18 months ,“feel a serious sense of shock and betrayal at this proposal which will be seriously injurious to their residential amenities and to the visual amenity of this new residential area”.

Echoing the views of others who objected, Mr Linnane said “the proposed development in terms of density and building heights represents an overdevelopment relative to existing and adjacent development”.

Another local resident, Rosine Elliott, told the appeals board that "7,700 additional units within a 2km radius are under construction, granted planning permission or awaiting planning permission".

Ms Elliott said the new scheme would “add increased pressure to roads and public transport which will only be increased over the coming years, negatively impacting the current residents”.

Advancing the case for the scheme, planning consultants for Cairn, McGill Planning, said the nine-storey element “is proposed as a local pop-up height to mark this local node at the public plaza and help create a sense of place and legibility to the plaza framing the start of the Greenway”.

McGill Planning said “the height and scale of development of 1-9 storeys responds positively to the existing built environment and character of the area”.

Architects for the scheme, McCrossan O’Rourke Manning Architects, said the proposed development will constitute a sustainable residential development which delivers a high quality urban design solution on the subject lands.

A decision is due on the scheme in March.