Bord Pleanála to decide on 13,363 fast-track housing units by mid-May

An Bord Pleanála is currently dealing with 47 separate Strategic Housing Development ((SHD) planning applications comprising more than 13,300 residential units.

The upsurge comes in the wake of a Government decision to phase out the fast-track process where developers can bypass local authorities and lodge planning applications straight to An Bord Pleanála.There was a pre-Christmas rush where 10 applications comprising 2,750 units were lodged in four days from December 20th to December 23rd.

Four new SHD applications lodged in recent days comprising 887 units bring to 13,363 units in 47 separate applications that the appeals board must decide upon before May 16th. Most of the applications are for the Dublin area.

The total doesn’t include 594 student bed spaces in two SHD applications.

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In the bulk of SHD cases the appeals board grants planning permission. It has most recently given the green light to two SHDs comprised of almost 500 units in Co Louth and west Dublin.

On Friday the appeals board granted planning permission to Loughdale Properties Ltd to construct 237 dwellings comprised of 86 houses and 151 apartments on a site located adjacent to a M1 interchange 2.5km from Drogheda town centre.

In a condition locking out institutional investors from bulk-buying the houses, the appeals board has restricted the purchase of the houses to individual purchasers “in order to ensure an adequate choice and supply of housing, including affordable housing, in the common good”.

The board determined that the proposed scheme would be acceptable in terms of design, scale, height, mix and quantum of development at the infill site location in Drogheda.

The owners of Loughdale Properties Ltd are listed as John Barry and Godfrey Hogan.

In a separate decision the appeals board has granted planning permission to Golden Port Estates Ltd to construct 249 apartments in eight five- to eight-storey blocks for a site at Carriglea Industrial Estate, Muirfield Drive, Naas Road, Dublin 12.