Student accommodation much needed but planning permission has been hard to come by

Numerous student accommodation complexes have been proposed over the past year but, as this selection shows, they have had varying levels of success in the planning process.

DUBLIN

Trinity College Dublin: Denied.

The city-centre university was notified last week that plans for 278 new bed spaces at the Pearse Street side of its campus have been rejected by An Bord Pleanála. Its proposed knocking of an existing five-storey office building and construction of the seven-storey accommodation facility had been approved by Dublin City Council in February.

A planning inspector recommended scaling down the plan by one floor to take account of concerns about the overbearing impact on TCD’s adjoining 18th-century Printing House. But An Bord Pleanála found this suggestion would not satisfactorily negate those concerns.

Grangegorman: Permitted.

More than 125 bed spaces are planned on a site near the new north inner-city Grangegorman campus of Dublin Institute of Technology. The centralisation of DIT’s various constituent colleges to the old mental health facility site is being staggered over a number of years, and this is one of a number of private schemes aimed at catering for the surge of students into the area.

LHC Properties got permission in January from Dublin City Council to knock terraced houses, and some commercial property at Grangegorman Road Lower. But the seven-storey project only got the final go-ahead in May after An Bord Pleanála’s consideration of a third-party appeal.

Stoneybatter: Denied.

Located near an entrance to the Grangegorman campus, plans to accommodate nearly 220 students on this site at Prussia Street were turned down by both Dublin City Council and An Bord Pleanála, either side of Christmas 2015.

The one-acre site is in backland of existing older houses and businesses, and planning officials had concerns about the shadow and other impacts of the four-storey facility.

Aungier St: Undecided.

An appeal is now with An Bord Pleanála over the council’s refusal of permission for a 282-bed student accommodation plan in the south inner city.

Kesteven Ltd wants to build the complex in Dublin 2, but the council said the demolition of buildings on Stephen St Upper to facilitate the works was unjustified. It also had concerns about the density and its location in a conservation area.

The outcome of the applicant company’s appeal is likely to be known early next month.

CORK

Carrigrohane Rd: Permitted.

Planning permission was granted in April for a 410-bedroom, seven-storey student accommodation development on the site of a former Coca-Cola bottling factory at Carrigrohane Rd.

The project by Gainstar Limited Partnership is convenient to both Cork Institute of Technology and University College Cork.

Lancaster Quay: Undecided.

Cork City Council should decide next week, or else request further information, on an application to provide more than 200 new student spaces on the former Muskerry Service Station site near the entrance to University College Cork.

More than a dozen objections have been received in relation to the application by an Irish subsidiary of UK student accommodation specialists Ziggurat’s plans for 30 apartments at the riverside location.

It is one of several site acquisitions the group has made to add to its existing portfolio of facilities for college-goers in Dublin and Cork.