Category Archives: Planning

An Bord Pleanála have made their decision regarding the Central Mental Hospital SHD planning application. Permission has been granted.

There are various conditions attached. A very brief overview of some of these conditions are:

• Quite a few studio and 1 bed units are to be combined to create new 2 bed and 3 bed units. These proposed amendments would result in a new total of 852 units, down from 977 units. They note that this is in line with the wishes of the Council.
• One vehicle access point on Dundrum Road. (The LDA had proposed two. One where the current entrance is, and one further south, towards the shopping centre direction.). ABP are directing that only the one to the south be retained for car traffic. The other one is to be used for bikes, pedestrians and emergency vehicles.
• A specification in respect of the height (1.8m) of a planted screen along the southern boundary of the area of open space at Block 4 (located at the corner of Friarsland and Larchfield Roads).
• The removal of a (relatively) small three storey building to the northwest of Annaville.
• Various windows to be removed, moved, some to contain obscure glazing, on blocks 8, 9 and 10, which are all on the eastern (Annaville) side of the site.
• Building works to be carried out between 7am and 7pm Mon to Fri, 8am to 2pm Sat.
• A piece of public art within the site is required.

The full 60 page document from An Bord Pleanála can be found online here.

What’s next? There is a period of eight weeks now where a Judicial Review could potentially be initiated. After that, the decision is set in stone, so to speak, and the LDA can move full steam ahead if they so wish.

DLR Council has very recently (15/2/23) granted permission for the temporary buildings for Goatstown Educate Together Secondary School on the IGB site. The Council’s Request for Further Information was answered by the Department at the start of February, and issues such as permeability were approached more to the Council’s liking.

The end result is there will be three pedestrian/cyclist entrances to the site, at Mount Carmel Road, Farmhill Road and the original entrance at Goatstown Road, with a new vehicular entrance on Goatstown Road, a little further north than the current one. There will also be a new pelican pedestrian crossing close to the current entrance.

The pedestrian/cyclist entrances on Mount Carmel and Farmhill Roads will be open 8am-5pm weekdays. The paths through the site will be fenced and there will be no public access to the open land at the back of the site. (The temporary school buildings will be located more to the front/Goatstown Road side of the site.)

You can see the Association’s observation on the RFI here.

The two residents in The Grove who took on a judicial review in respect of the SHD student resident development on the Our Lady’s Grove campus have been successful. Justice David Holland’s judgement of 17/2/23, quashes the planning permission on four grounds:
– Open Character of site (Para 149-181)
– Density (Para 182-229)
– Daylight Analysis, SPPR3 (Para 378-470)
– Tree Planting – Commensurate Trees Condition (Para 522-591)

He adjourned to later this month the question of whether it should be sent back to the board for reconsideration or simply quashed. His provisional view was also that the couple should be awarded their costs.

Some links to media articles about the judgement:
Breakingnews.ie
Extra.ie
Irish Times

The Council has replied to the Department of Education’s latest planning application for the IGB site. In the Notification of Request for Further Information, dated 2/9/22, the Council wants the site to be opened for pedestrian/cyclist permeability between Goatstown Road, Farmhill Road, Mount Carmel Road and Taney Avenue. They also want the land at the back to be publicly accessible. This is as per the conditions of the zoning on the site (F zoning). However they do say that as it’s an application for temporary buildings, they will consider time-limited openings, and also fenced-off areas, where required.

We believe the Department has up to 6 months to respond. Very disappointing for the schools, who need to be move onto this site as soon as possible.

A new planning application has been submitted by the Department of Education for a temporary secondary school in the IGB site. Hopefully this one will be more successful than the last one.

The reference number for this application is D22A/0506 and the closing date is August 15th. The documents can be found on the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council website.

You can find the Association’s observation to this application here.

The Association made an observation in respect of the LDA’s planning application for development of the Central Mental Hospital Site.

You can read the observation here.

Another SHD planning application has been submitted for student accommodate on this site. (The first was quashed in the High Court.) This application is very similar to the first one. The website is here: https://goatstownroadshd2.ie/.

The closing date for observations is 10th May. The reference number for this one is 313235.

Update, May:
We submitted an observation on this planning application. You can find it here.

The final Hammerson-Allianz plans for Dundrum Village were lodged with An Bord Pleanála (ABP) for planning permission on Tuesday April 5th, and can be seen at https://dundrumvillageSHD.ie/.

The public has only until Monday May 9th to make observations (submissions) to ABP – the only opportunity to have your say on this development.

Imagine Dundrum is strongly in favour of the redevelopment of Dundrum to revitalise our Village and provide much-needed homes. But are deeply concerned about these plans, which in no way match the vision of Dundrum’s future developed in consultation with the local community. With the help of a planning expert, they are considering the plans in detail and will make a more detailed statement very soon, but in the meantime they have outlined their initial concerns and questions in our attachment below.

Imagine Dundrum is asking for our support. Sign up to the Imagine Dundrum mailing list, contact your local Councillors and TDs, spread the word to friends and neighbours, make your own submission to An Bord Pleanála, and not least make a donation to support our campaign for the best possible future Dundrum. https://www.imaginedundrum.ie/donate/

Dates for your diary:
1) Public meeting Wednesday April 27th, Taney Parish Centre, 7.30 pm. Input from our planning consultant and information on making a submission to An Bord Pleanála
2) Drop-in advice/ information clinic to assist with submissions, Saturday April 30th. Details to be announced.

How to Make an Observation to An Bord Pleanála:
Imagine Dundrum have put together this very useful guide to making an observation to An Bord Pleanala. You will find all the detail you need here.

The planning application for the development in the Central Mental Hospital has been made public, and is expected to be lodged today, or over the coming days. This means that there are now 5 weeks to go through the plans and documentation, and make an observation on this proposal. During this period the Council will prepare a Report that will go to An Bord Pleanála, along with a summary of submitted observations. The Board will then make the final decision.

You can find all the information about this proposed development on this website: www.dundrumcentralresidential.ie. As you will see, there is a vast amount of information there. You can find some views of the plan below. It gives an instant idea of the scale of the development. The proposed development will consist of 940 apartments, 17 duplexes and 20 houses, with building heights ranging from 2 to 7 storeys. The old hospital building appears not to be part of this planning application, and according to the documentation, will be dealt with at a later date. The plan for this building appears to be a conversion to 80 units. This would be in addition to the figure of 977 units proposed in this application.

The ABP reference number for this application is 313176, and the final date for observations is Wednesday 4th May 2022.

We strongly encourage all members to make an observation if they have any comment to make.

The images below come from the Documents/Other/CGI Photomontages section and the EIAR/Photomontages section. There are many images in these files, we have only put 5 below. We have re-saved the PDFs to a smaller file size. You can download and view these smaller PDFs here and here. The ones on the Dundrum Central website are enormous and consequently it is very difficult to view the content there. We would advise all to have a look at the images in these PDFs.

We have added up all the developments being planned for Dundrum Road (we are including the Old Shopping Centre in this), and the numbers are, quite frankly, startling. The total number of units being planned for Dundrum Road alone (just the road, not the environs), is 2,462. To put this in perspective, if you very conservatively multiply that by a figure of 1.5 persons per household, that gives a new population of 3,750. Roughly the population of Carrick-on-Shannon, or possibly Kilcoole, on this one road. This does not include sites on this road that are due to be developed, but for which no plans have been lodged yet, e.g. Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

This lack of planning is a direct result of the SHD system. If you have any comment to make about this, we suggest you contact our elected representatives.

231 apartments – Mount St Mary’s (Marist) Dundrum Rd, granted 25/8/21
115 apartments – Highfield Park/Frankfort Castle, Dundrum Rd, granted 20/12/21
64 apartments – American Golf, Dundrum Rd, TBD by 8/4/22
977 + 80 units – Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum Rd, TBD
111 apartments, Sommerville/Larchfield, Dundrum Rd, TBD by 27/6/2022
884 apartments, Dundrum old shopping centre, application to be lodged any day.

Total : 2,462 units