The owners of Dundrum Town Centre shopping centre, Hammerson, have confirmed plans to construct 889 apartments in Dundrum.
A subsidiary of Hammerson, Dundrum Retail GP DAC, has commenced consultation with An Bord Pleanala to construct the 889 apartments at the ‘Old Dundrum Shopping Centre and Other Properties, Main Street, Dundrum’.
In a notice published by An Bord Pleanala, it confirms that the consultation is to continue until December 6th.
At that stage, after examining an outline of the plans in consultation with planners from Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, the appeals board will advise the Hammerson company if the scheme forms a reasonable basis for a Strategic Housing Development (SHD) application or requires further amendment.
It will then be open to the Hammerson firm to lodge ‘fast track’ planning application under the SHD system. No details are yet publicly available concerning the number of, or height of, the apartment blocks in the proposed development.
Anticipated application
The anticipated SHD application is expected to form part of a deluge of planning applications to be lodged by developers under the SHD system in the coming months, as the SHD process is due to expire in February of next year.
The SHD process allows developers to bypass local authorities, where the appeals board is required to deliver decisions 16 weeks after applications have been lodged.
As the SHD deadline looms, another developer has entered consultation talks with the appeals board for an even larger development in the capital.
A separate notice published by the appeals board confirms that one of the best known developers of the Celtic Tiger era, Gerry Gannon’s building firm Gerard Gannon Properties, is to seek planning permission to construct 2,718 residential units.
As part of the scheme for Belcamp Hall, Malahide Road and R139, Belcamp, Dublin 17, Gerard Gannon Properties Ltd is seeking permission to construct 2,233 apartments and 485 houses, two creches and all associated site works.
The consultation period for that application will also conclude on December 6th, before the lodging of the formal SHD application.
Refused
The publication of the two notices comes as Richard Barrett’s Bartra has been refused ‘fast track’ planning permission for a SHD application for 142 apartments at Tolka Industrial Park, Ballyboggan Rd, Dublin 11.
The appeals board refused planning permission after pointing out that the site is zoned for ‘employment/enterprise’.
The board stated that any residential proposal for the site should be subsidiary to the main employment generating uses and not conflict with the ‘employment/enterprise’ zoning.
The board stated that the proposal fails to satisfy this policy requirement. Dublin City Council also recommended refusal on this ground.
The board inspector in the case, Karen Kenny, also recommended that planning be refused as the scheme would be premature pending the completion of a review of the zoning for the area and would set an undesirable precedent for the ad-hoc and piecemeal development of ‘employment/enterprise’ zonings.
