DUBLIN Corporation's decision to approve a controversial scheme of multi-storey flats and houses in the grounds of Mount St Anne's Milltown, has been defended by the city's chief planning officer.
Addressing a Bord Pleanala oral hearing, Mr Pat McDonnell said the "dichotomy" between this decision and the unanimous recommendation by the City Council's planning committee for a refusal could be explained by the fact that development control was an executive function. He suggested that the councillors had made up their minds in advance and were not prepared to listen to the planners.
But Mr John Gormley, the former Green Party Lord Mayor, accused him of "denigrating the role of the councillors and treating us as mindless automatons."
Residents and associations in the Milltown and Ranelagh areas are appealing against the decision to grant permission to Park Developments for a scheme of 300 flats and 158 houses at Mount St Anne's, which the company bought from the Sisters of Charity for £8 million.
Mr McDonnell said the stock of open land owned by religious orders had become a "shrinking asset", especially with the current "sky's the limit" boom in the property market.
He told the hearing that a planning brief for the area, drawn up in 1995, was a discussion document for internal use. In identifying areas with development potential, it was not intended to "give religious orders a nudge in the wrong direction, towards the world of auctioneers".
It was unrealistic to think that open land such as Mount St Anne's could be acquired for development as public parks. The Corporation did not have the funding, and there was an issue of equitable investment, with poorer parts of the city arguably deserving priority.
Mr McDonnell said it was inevitable that property in the vicinity of Mount St Anne's would increase in value after the Luas light rail system was installed on the former Harcourt Street railway line, which adjoins the 16-acre site.
However, with 58 letters of objection from residents complaining about the height and density of the scheme, the Corporation's decision would require the omission of 24 houses and 18 flats. It also wanted open spaces to be more informal.
Mr James Pike, architect for the development, denied that the density - at 28 units per acre - was high. It was a "very reasonable density" for the location, and compared to a density of 137 units an acre for a scheme his firm had designed at the Grand Canal Docks.
The public open space also amounted to 40 per cent of the overall area, which was "surely high enough on a site so well served by public transport and within 10 minutes of the city centre". Some of this space would be in the form of an indoor recreational area.
Referring to complaints from residents, he said that "nobody in his right mind" living in Mount St Anne's would park their cars on nearby streets when there were secure parking spaces on the site. Pedestrian access to the adjoining Luas line would also be controlled.
He could see no disadvantage in residents of the scheme overlooking the playing fields of Alexandra and Gonzaga colleges, both of which adjoin the site. One resident, Mr Fergus O Tuama, had claimed that it would be a "peeping Tom's paradise".
