Plans to turn the former Jefferson Smurfit headquarters at Beech Hill in Clonskeagh into a residential and office complex have met with local opposition.
The proposal by Pamarette and UCD to build 479 residential units on an 11.8-acre site - as well as offices and a crèche, gym/community building and two basement car-parks with nearly 900 spaces - has been challenged by five parties, who have appealed planning permission granted by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to An Bord Pleanála. The directors of Pamarette are Brian McCormack, John Paul Flynn and Simon Kelly.
The proposal is also for a gated pedestrian access onto Greenfield Park and the UCD campus at Belfield, while the main access would be off Beech Hill.
In his appeal, Labour Cllr and former Lord Mayor of Dublin Dermot Lacey, who lives at Beech Hill Drive in Donnybrook, says no effort was made by the developer to inform residents of its proposals. He says that, although Beech Hill Drive would be affected by the development as a result of overshadowing and loss of privacy, it is in Dublin City Council's jurisdiction while the development is within Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown's County Council's area.
It is "disappointing" that UCD has decided to "depart" from an understanding on the part of residents of Beech Hill Drive "that the college would not develop the lands immediately adjoining our homes", says the appeal. Residents are also concerned that the proposed decked area to the rear of Beech Hill Drive would create an unsupervised open public area.
Greenfield Park Residents Group says the proposed scheme is poorly designed and Beech Hill Road is not capable of taking a huge volume of additional traffic. L M Ericsson, which has an office adjacent to the site at Beech Hill Office Campus, has requested an oral hearing, on the grounds that it would be the best way to address the complex issues raised by the redevelopment.
It says the existing access at Beech Hill and the surrounding network and junctions have a limited capacity for traffic, and the scale of the development proposed would be dominant and overbearing and have a negative effect on the general working environment.
A resident of Airfield Court, Donnybrook, says part of the development would be 40 metres from her garden wall. She said apartment blocks of seven and eight storeys would be out of keeping with the two-storey semi-detached houses in the area and said that many UCD facility buildings do not exceed five storeys. She also had concerns about the height of a proposed 12-storey office tower. A resident of Greenfield Park, Donnybrook, says the pedestrian and cyclist access onto Greenfield Park, via a laneway at the side of their house, would represent a security risk and a noise nuisance and attract anti-social behaviour.
