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A DEVELOPMENT OF 34 apartments in Harold’s Cross was last month given the green light by Dublin City Council planners, despite concerns from the adjacent cemetery that it would rob mourners of their privacy.
An appeal has now been lodged with An Bord Pleanála by a separate party against the development going ahead.
The appeal was submitted to An Bord Pleanála late last month by Martin Ryan, a solicitor and property owner in the area, with properties adjacent to the proposed development.
The appeal comes after a number of concerned parties – including Ryan, local residents’ groups and the company behind Mount Jerome Cemetery – lodged objections to the development.
The application for the apartments was lodged on 21 December of last year by Rivergate Property Harold’s Cross Limited, which is led by construction consultant Joe McCaffrey.
The application is for the demolition of existing buildings and structures at 126 to 128 Harold’s Cross Road and the construction of an infill residential development of 34 apartments, made up of:
These would be spread over two blocks with balconies, with the highest block being five storeys. The application also requests permission for 30 car parking spaces, bicycle parking, refuse store and a landscaped courtyard and associated works.
Objections
The application was met with nine separate objections and concerns from different groups.
The objections were to do with the size and scale of the development in relation to other buildings in the area. Concerns were also raised around potential traffic issues, flooding risks, and parking.
Alan Massey – secretary of the General Cemetery Company of Dublin, which owns Mount Jerome Cemetery – raised concerns about all of the above, as well as the impact balconies overlooking the proposed development would have on mourners visiting graves.
“Mourners attending to their loved one’s graves in these sections will be robbed of their privacy when paying their respects to their deceased family members by people in these proposed balconies / terraces overlooking them,” Massey said on behalf of the cemetery, calling for the balconies to be removed from the design.
In another objection, Stephen Mason Architectural and Planning Services (SMAPS) submitted concerns of behalf of Martin Ryan, who later lodged the appeal.
Mason stated that there had been no consultation by the applicant with neighbours in the area, that the proposed development represented an “under-development” of the site and that it did not take into account the effect it would have on neighbours.
Concerns were also raised around the impact the development would have on traffic and parking in the area.
Other submissions were received from local residents’ groups, individual residents and management companies operating in the area.
Council decision
The council came back to the developer requesting four pieces of additional information before it issued a decision.
These related to the proximity of the proposed development to other buildings, as well as requirements to detail how emergency vehicles would access the development.
The developer submitted these and the council granted permission to the development in May with 15 conditions attached, relating to flooding, construction plans and the need to carry out an archaeology assessment, among others.
Martin Ryan submitted an appeal on 28 May, with a decision expected from An Bord Pleanála by the end of September.
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2007 all over again. There’s definitely a recession in the post.
@jacquoranda: really? Why do you say that?
@jacquoranda: the hypocrite church would be the first to complain about the housing crisis. Regarding privacy , should we ban all other mourners in a cemetery, allow one at a time. So they aren’t “robbed of their privacy “ …
@Shane Murphy: It isn’t owned by the church, or any church – as you would found out if you had spent five seconds checking before posting an ill-informed clueless post.
Cemeteries will be redundant in a few years anyway since theres no room left in them. Wasteful use of land. Build the apartments.
@Roisin Brennan: cremation
@Means of escape: Composting the dead is the latest trend in America. No doubt it will follow here. You become a human grow bag for your tomatoes !
@Nosmo King: Luke Perry chose this option
@Nosmo King: how do they do that? Sounds like a good idea.
@Nosmo King: or in your case potatoes.
@Roisin Brennan: You can buy a second hand grave in mount jerome.
@Roisin Brennan: Sounds a bit too much like Soylent Green.
It already is overlooked.
NIMGYism
Given concerns for anti-social behaviour, vandalism and the occasional mugging of folk visiting graves- you would imagine a bit of potential oversight would be a good thing for any cemetery!
My local cementary has a school on 1 side, housing estate on another with a business center directly across the road from it. behing it is another estate. Secondary school within 3 min walk & another 2 primary schools also within walking distance. I did forget the local football pitches. Nearly forgot the church. Never heard of any of the residents complaining.
@bings: the thing is none of the buildings you mention probably are not so high as to have people overlooking the graveyard to the extent that it interrupts the privacy of mourners and people visiting their relatives’ graves.
@Micheal S. O’ Ceilleachair: if that’s the kind of thing that concerns you then maybe you shouldn’t bury your relatives in the middle of a bustling city
@Micheal S. O’ Ceilleachair: that’s probably the worst reason I ever heard for opposing a planning application
@Micheal S. O’ Ceilleachair: the newer part of Mount Jerome is already overlooked by houses and has been for donkeys years. How is it only an issue now?
Why would mourners be complaining about privacy are they doing little dances around the grave or what I’d be more concerned about sitting on my balcony with only dead people for company, fingal cemetery is overlooked by houses and apartments never hear the living or the dead complain
Those mourners are always whinging about something.
Have the residents of the graveyard raised a complaint?
Sure heres already apartments overlooking the Cemetery further down on Harolds Cross Rd , that area needs cleaning up with all the derilict buildings . My worry would be how many apartments will actually go for sale to families etc ? And not be bought on mass and rented out at crazy prices .
My local cemetery has a playground in it.
@Chewey Bacca:
Hopefully not in use at night!
@Michael Kavanagh: it’s also across from a school so kids walk through the graves between school and playground. The living and the dead playing together. Playground is on edge of land cemetery is in (not in the centre) with no fences divide and it’s a very old one so no regular funerals. Think the concept works better next to the older more interesting ones than the newer ones in use daily.
I stayed in a hotel which overlooked a graveyard in Spain a few years back. It was weird if I’m honest
Was just about to write that, lived in that area my whole life and the amount of house’s looking into that place lol
These planners are making the same mistakes as before. Stupidity on a grand scale. . There are no planning laws in Ireland look around
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