A PROPOSAL to build one of Ireland's tallest buildings, a 24-storey apartment tower at Sandyford in south Co Dublin, has been rejected by An Bord Pleanála.
The board, which overturned the decision of its own planning inspector, said that Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council had not adequately provided for such a building in terms of transport, waste-water, schools and recreational amenities.
The board repeated its concerns about the absence of an adequate planning framework which would guide the redevelopment of the Sandyford area, including the extent of the residential area and the provision of public open space.
The decision brings to an end a three-year campaign against the project by local residents' associations whose members' homes stood to be overlooked by the tower. Residents of Stillorgan Heath expressed disappointment when the council announced its intention to grant permission for the tower on the former MJ Flood site in July 2005. The developer was Wexele Ltd, a company controlled by developer Noel Smyth.
Residents expressed further disappointment when the local authority's chief planner, Derek Brady, joined Mr Smyth's senior management team in another Smyth company, Alburn Ltd. The proposal was for 259 apartments, with 15 live/work units and commercial use on the ground floor, underground car parking, a gym, creche, cinema and 338 parking spaces.
All facades of the tower were to have balconies, with a "winter garden" on the top floor.
According to an opponent of the project Barry Saul, the decision represented "a victory for local residents and their associations". Bord Pleanála wrote to the local authority in December 2006 about the lack of a framework plan for development in the Sandyford Industrial Estate "and has still not received a comprehensive plan for the estate", said Mr Saul.
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