Plan for former Harcourt Terrace Garda Station appealed

An Taisce has appealed Dublin City Council's decision to approve a high-rise office and residential scheme at the former Garda Station at Harcourt Terrace, Dublin 2.

Harcourt Terrace Ltd, a subsidiary of the Durkan Group, got planning permission to demolish all the buildings on the site and build a nine-storey office block and two apartment buildings, rising to nine storeys. Altogether, the scheme would provide 43 apartments - a mix of mainly one and two-bedroom units - and 12,714sq m (136,854sq ft) of office space.

In a letter to An Bord Pleanála, An Taisce says the proposal involves the demolition of the 1950s Garda Station at the corner of Harcourt Terrace which is "of architectural merit". It says the scale and design of the proposed development "is in no way sympathetic to the sensitive historic environment" of Harcourt Terrace, "a unique environment in the city, defined by the rare and intact Regency houses".

Another ground for appeal is the nine-storey element of the development. It points to a previous refusal by the board for an eight-storey office block at Charlemont Place because of the massing and height were out of character with the pattern of development in the vicinity.

Another appeal to An Bord Pleanála by residents of Harcourt Terrace says the proposal would constitute overdevelopment of the site. They take issue with the requirement for a restaurant on the ground floor of the residential block which they say "is wholly inappropriate for a Residential Conservation Area" and "one of the few residential areas" in the city centre "with a substantial family occupancy".

A planning condition imposed by Dublin City Council requires that the developer omits a proposed four-storey office block at the northern end of the site to protect local residential amenity.

But residents say while they welcome this, the situation has been left open for a revised building design and are "doubtful that anything but the most modest development could be successfully accommodated given the restricted size of the site".

It asks that the developer submit revised proposals for an office or residential development on this part of the site which would be subject to a separate planning application.

If it is successful the development will occupy the site of Harcourt Terrace Garda Station, the Film Censor's Office and the former Dairy Science Laboratory, which Durkans acquired last year in exchange for providing over 400 affordable homes in new housing schemes in south-west Dublin.