Dublin City Council refuses permission for Tolka development

Dublin City Council has refused planning permission to Richard Barrett's Bartra to construct 71 apartments and office accommodation at Tolka Industrial Estate, Dublin 11.

Earlier this year Bartra Property (Broombridge) Ltd lodged plans with the council for a mixed-use development comprising 7,353sq m of office accommodation and 71 apartments made up of 24 one-bed units, 40 two-bed and seven three-bed units for the site on Ballyboggan Road.

The scheme is across two blocks. with one six-storey block over basement reserved for office accommodation. with the residential component occupying a nine-storey block.

Planning consultants for Bartra, Thornton O’Connor Town Planning, argued that the “high quality” mixed-use development would “re-invigorate this presently vacant site”.

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The consultants said that the scheme would help address the national shortage in housing supply and reintroduce employment to the site.

However, the council refused planning permission on a number of grounds. It said that given the scale of residential development within the mixed-use proposal, the scheme as planned would be contrary to the development principles of the City Development Plan relating to the site where residential use would be subsidiary to the main employment-generating uses.

The council ruled that the proposed proportion of residential development is not considered to be subsidiary and therefore the scheme would lead to piecemeal haphazard development and set an undesirable precedent for future projects.

Proposal

The council also noted that the proposal for two substantial blocks on a relatively small site was not appropriate.

The application by Bartra was the second attempt by the group in the past year to develop the site. Last June, Bartra lodged fast-track plans for 142 apartments under the Strategic Housing Development (SHD) system for the site with An Bord Pleanála.

The appeals board refused permission in October .and again the proportion of residential accommodation was a factor in the decision.

Bartra has the option of appealing the most recent decision to An Bord Pleanála.