TCD saves €335,000 following planning costs appeal

Trinity College Dublin (TCD) has won a planning contribution row, saving it nearly €335,000 in costs, with Dublin City Council regarding the university’s planned new €60m E3 Foundry facility.

The proposed project, at Trinity’s main city centre campus, involves new schools for engineering, computer science and natural science.

An Bord Pleanála has ruled that TCD should pay €409,535 in planning contribution for the proposal – and not the €744,311 demanded by the Council.

The decision saves the college €334,776 in planning contribution costs.

As part of the E3 Foundry plan, TCD lodged two separate applications and the inspector’s report has found the amount of floorspace used by the council to calculate the levies was incorrect.

The appeals board agreed with the TCD argument that the council did not take account of the demolition of the bio-chemistry building that the E3 building will replace when making its calculation for the planning contribution for the net additional space.

An Bord Pleanála also found that the Council Development Contribution Scheme was incorrectly applied and the scheme should apply to the net increase in floorspace only.

TCD said that the demolition of the bio-chemistry building was obtained first in a separate application through a two stage planning process.

Last year, Dublin City Council granted planning permission for the development that will facilitate an increase of 1,800 students.

However, the council demanded that TCD pay out a total of €744,311 in planning public infrastructure contributions and contributions towards the LUAS cross city line.

TCD claimed that it was overcharged €334,776 through the incorrect application of the developer contribution scheme.

In respect of the contribution of €250,078 towards the LUAS Cross City Line, TCD claimed that Dublin City Council overcharged the college €112,480 and the total should be revised down to €137,598. The appeals board also upheld the TCD argument on this point.

The new E3 Foundry proposal has been made possible through a €25m donation by the Naughton family.