Locals appeal €300m scheme planned for Stepaside area

Stepaside residents are challenging Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council's decision to approve a massive €300 million residential development on the eastern side of the Enniskerry Road next to Aiken's Village in Co Dublin.

The proposal by Cavan-based company, P Elliott and Co, is for 749 residential units, a crèche, community centre, clubhouse, café, 10 shops, and two vehicular accesses off Aiken's Village Distributor Road.

The developer got planning permission in August to build a mix of apartments and houses on the 30-acre site in the townlands of Murphystown and Woodside.

This would comprise 616 apartments in 28 blocks rising to eight storeys.

The development would also include 126 houses and 1,317 car-parking spaces, over 950 of which would be at basement level.

Five appeals have been submitted to An Bord Pleanála, including Belarmine Residents Association and Hillcrest Road Residents Association.

Belarmine Residents Association says it views the council's decision to grant permission for the development "with alarm and concern" and says there are urgent issues facing the area that need to be addressed in a new local area plan. "We consider there are many similarities to the situation in Sandyford which ultimately culminated in the need for An Bord Pleanála to intervene, requiring the council to produce a clear plan of how the latter intends to regulate future development in Sandyford," says the appeal.

They say a new local area plan for Stepaside would address issues, like the existing road network, which they say is inadequate, particularly on Hillcrest Road and the section of Kilgobbin Road between Murphystown Road and Stepaside village.

They say the current Stepaside action area plan is out of date and "has never been adhered to" leading to "inappropriate densities in inappropriate locations".

Other issues include the scale and height of the development.

Hillcrest Road Residents Association says the proposed development would have a population of 2,200 people which will add to traffic problems at the Aiken's Village and Enniskerry Road junction and Lamb's Cross area. It calls for a link road from the Enniskerry Road to the Kilgobbin Road.

P Elliott and Co, controlled by Mark and Noel Elliott, has become increasingly high profile in recent years.

It bought Belfast's 262ft Windsor House earlier this year for £30 million (€44.5 million) and recently submitted a planning permission to redevelop the former Irish Times building on D'Olier Street, D2, for which it paid €29 million.

In addition, the company is also behind the €80 million redevelopment of Fatima Mansions in the Rialto area of Dublin 8.