Setback for land development agency as planning denied for 200 homes in Naas
The new State body suffered a setback to one of its first major schemes. It wanted to build over 200 new homes at the former Devoy Barracks, Naas, Co Kildare. Picture: Peter Thursfield
The new State body responsible for developing housing projects on State-owned land has suffered a setback to one of its first major schemes after it was refused planning permission to build over 200 new homes at a former army barracks in Co Kildare.
An Bord Pleanála has rejected an application by the Land Development Agency to develop 221 social and affordable homes on the site of the former Devoy Barracks in Naas.
The board said the plans had provided insufficient car parking spaces for a development that did not have high-frequency public transport connections.
The site on the John Devoy Road, which is adjacent to the headquarters of Kildare County Council, is around 750 metres to the southwest of Naas town centre.
The LDA had sought planning permission for 36 houses and 185 apartments and duplexes in buildings up to five storeys in height as well as a crèche on the 4.1 hectare site on the John Devoy Road in Naas under the fast-track planning process for strategic housing developments.
A total of 30 units were to be provided for social housing with a two-bed apartment costing €166,782, with the remainder dedicated to affordable housing.
The board’s planning inspector said the LDA had sought to rely on reduced parking rates and on-street parking which was “excessive” when large areas of off-street parking such as basements could have been used.
The inspector said the problem could not be resolved by way of a condition to granting planning permission.
They expressed concern that there was no commensurate increase in social and community infrastructure with some claiming the height, scale, and density of the project was “out of character” with the location with its layout dominated by roads and car parking.
Although Kildare County Council said it considered that a residential development was appropriate for the location, albeit at a higher density than other existing housing developments in the area, it recommended that planning permission be refused because of the lack of car park spaces and their “haphazard positioning” within the site.
Council planners believed the shortfall in car park spaces would result in unauthorised car parking on streets and footpaths within the development as well as the council’s own offices and other housing estates in the area.
The LDA claimed it would deliver “an attractive and well connected” new development on the site of the former Devoy Barracks.
