Green light for Denis O’Brien development

An Bord Pleanála has given the green light to a Denis O’Brien-backed company to construct a €50m luxury apartment complex in Donnybrook, Dublin 4 — in spite of strong opposition from local residents.

The decision brings to an end a 19-month planning saga that has now resulted in Mr O’Brien’s Purleigh Holdings securing planning permission for the 86 apartments across five blocks.

The firm lodged plans for a 90-unit plan last December in a revised application with the city council. However, this was reduced to 86 by Dublin City Council in its grant of permission last April which ordered the omission of a top floor in one apartment block.

Two residents groups, the Greenfield Residents Group and the Nutley Square Management Company, appealed the City Council decision to the appeals board.

The inspector in the case recommended that the development be further reduced to 78 units, which — if upheld — would have wiped an estimated €4m off the value of the development. However, the board has not gone along with the recommendation and has granted planning for 86 apartments.

The Greenfield Residents Group said it accepted a previous decision to grant planning permission for 71 units and this should have been the maximum allowed. It said the 86 units would be “excessive” and a decision to give the green light for that amount of units “would be perverse”.

The Nutley Square group called the plan “overwhelming”, out of scale with houses in the area, and will result in a significant loss of residential amenities.

However, in its decision, An Bord Pleanála ruled that the proposal would not seriously injure the visual and residential amenities of the area and so it would accord with the zoning objective for the site.