Submissions made about Cork's Albert Quay office proposal
Cork City Council is due to decide the application by late next week, but may seek further information from the applicant firm, Appoville Ltd. It lodged plans at the end of February for the site of 2.5-acres, which stretches back to Albert Road and has frontage to Victoria Road, on the east of the site.
The plans replace a previously-approved application for an events centre, after public funding was awarded, instead, to the alternative events centre, at the city centre Beamish brewery site. The O’Callaghan company now plans four office blocks, ranging from three to six storeys in height, for office, business, or technology use.
Among the issues raised in submissions from residents and business owners were impact on light amenity, concerns about traffic, access for emergency services (the buildings could hold 3,000 employees), and limitations on future development of nearby premises.
* Plans for a major, new residential development in Dublin’s northside have been approved.
The application, submitted last September, was for 318 units in a scheme next to the Royal Canal, at Pelletstown, Ashtown, in Dublin 15. The mix of 176 apartments and 142 houses was the subject of a further information request from Dublin City Council, and permission was granted, subject to conditions.
Among those conditions was the omission of the upper two floors of one of the three proposed apartment blocks. The resulting restriction to four storeys meant the omission of nine units.
The applicant, Capel Developments Ltd (which was listed as being in receivership), has appealed conditions.
* Cork City Council has approved a new restaurant on Washington Street, giving the go-ahead to a change-of-use application.
The old Cork Film Services premises was subject of a proposal, before Christmas, from Richard Gavin and Laura Sureda. They sought permission to change use from commercial ground-floor to three storeys of restaurant use, with ground-floor and first-floor dining areas. The second floor would accommodate ancillary areas, as well as a one-bed manager’s apartment.
* A new, south Cork school campus faces consideration by a planning inspector, following approval by Cork County Council.
The Cork Education and Training Board (CETB) sought permission in February, 2015, for the three-school development, near Carrigaline. After responses to its requests for further information, the council granted permission for the proposal, at Ardnacloghy, north of the town, early last month.
An Bord Pleanála has since received a third-party appeal, and is also considering an application for leave-to-appeal from another third party.
The plan is for a 500-student, second-level Gaelcholáiste; a 24-classroom primary school, and a single-storey special junior primary school for Sonas. The leave-to-appeal matter should be decided by the end of this month, with an overall decision by early August, 2016.
* Plans for 30,000 square metres of light industry space in south Co Dublin have been refused permission, in a decision that has been appealed.
South Dublin County Council turned down the application for a site at the Baldonnel Business Park, in Dublin 22, at the start of March. The plan, from MLEU Dublin Ltd, was to demolish a prefab building and to build three units for light industrial and logistics/warehouse use. The sizes were to range from 10,800sq m to 11,000sq m, with options to sub-divide units. Also planned were 329 parking spaces, with access to the site from Barney’s Lane and Clonlara Road. A final decision is now due by August.
* A similar outcome for the proposed replacement of a south Dublin pub with a service station has also been the subject of a planning appeal.
Maxol Ltd applied, in January, to demolish the former pub on part of the site (almost an acre), at the junction of Main Street and Boherboy Road, in Saggart. The proposal, which was refused by South Dublin County Council, is for the construction of a two-storey service station with retail, off-licence, self-service food/deli counter, petrol pumps and car wash.
