IN ONE of the city’s longest running planning sagas, developer Mark Piggott has got permission from the council to knock Clontarf’s Redcourt House – “fire gutted and derelict says Piggott – for a scheme of 59 apartments.

The Victorian property hit the headlines last year when the burned remains of a man were found after a fire in the house. In January Piggott got permission to convert the house into four apartments and build a five-storey 33-unit apartment block and nine townhouses on the site. In the wake of the fire Piggott submitted an alternative application seeking permission to knock the house and build a new house containing five apartments as well as a five-storey 54-unit apartment building.

The house on 1.65 acres has been at the centre of a planning dispute in recent years. While Piggott bought the house in 2004 for €7.5m, there are planning files for the house dating to 1980.

Piggott’s original plan to knock the house for 54 apartments was rejected by the council and An Bord Pleanála. Although the developer succeeded in stopping the house being listed, the board said it was an intrinsic element of the site.

Meanwhile, another planning saga was simmering away this week. Developers Clondean Ltd – made up of Mark Sloan, Francis Rhatigan and Christopher Jones – were thwarted in their plans to add two more storeys to their proposed apartment scheme at the former OPW site at Lad Lane, D2. An Bord Pleanála ruled that the additional two storeys would be contrary to proper planning. Expect appeals and renewed applications!