BAM has four-month reprieve to address concerns over Cork student scheme

Major Cork student accommodation by BAM is delayed on Sullivan's Quay as planners demand more info on design and environmental impact.

Former 'Tax Office' site on Sullivan's Quay, Cork City, now owned by BAM. Picture: Larry Cummins

A major student accommodation complex proposed by BAM for Sullivan’s Quay in Cork City faces delays after the developer successfully applied for more time to comply with planners’ requests for further information.

The original two-month deadline for BAM to supply more details in relation to the 503-bed scheme expired on Monday, June 1, but Cork City Council has agreed to a four-month extension, and a a new deadline of October 1.

The decision to grant BAM a reprieve was in response to a request from Ballincollig-based HW Planning (Harry Walsh), representing the developer, who argued that there were grounds under current regulations to allow a total of six months to response to a request for additional information.

This was in cases where the request “relates to an environmental impact assessment or an appropriate assessment (AA) or both”.

Computer-generated image of the planned student apartment development by Bam on the former tax office site on Cork's Sullivan's Quay. Image: Pedersen Focus

According to Harry Walsh, an updated environmental impact assessment (EIA), screening report, and an AA screening report will be necessary “as a result of the design amendments required to respond to the RFI” (request for further information).

The council had expressed concerns relating to the massing, scale, design, and materials of the proposal “and how it would conflict with the urban grain, scale, and character” of the adjoining historic streetscape.

When it made the request for further information on April 1, it said it was “not satisfied that the development, as currently proposed, is acceptable”.

“As currently proposed, the scheme will not result in an enhancing contribution to the particular setting of this part of the city centre which is a designated ACA(Architectural Conservation Area),” the council said.

Moreover, it was concerned about a “problematic visual impact” affecting close range views, river corridor views and views within the historic townscape “with an overall detracting and adverse impact on the setting”.

City planners called for a reduction in the height of one of two proposed accommodation blocks from five and seven storeys to four and six storeys, as well as “simplification” of the massing of the second block, “with further material and compositional refinement”.

The original application was for permission to build two distinctive blocks, ranging in height from five to 11 storeys, accommodating 67 apartments, based on a design by Reddy Architecture + Urbanism.

BAM lodged the application in January, 20 years after buying the almost one-acre site from the Revenue Commissioners, who previously had a tax office on the riverside plot. BAM twice applied to build a mix-used development there, including a hotel and offices, but did not go ahead with either proposal.

The prime city centre site has lain idle since the nine-storey tax office building was demolished in 2019.