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AN BORD PLEANÁLA has granted planning permission to Pat Crean’s Marlet Group to demolish the Bailey Court Hotel in Howth and replace it with 177 apartments.
The contentious apartment plan involves apartment blocks ranging from three storeys to five storeys in height on three parcels of land and the appeals board has granted planning permission in spite of widespread local opposition to the plan.
The locals’ opposition was supported by TDs, Aodhán Ó’Riordán (Lab), Sean Haughey (FF) and TDs at the time of making objections, Finian McGrath (Ind) and Tommy Broughan (Ind). Senator Catherine Noonan (FG) also expressed concerns over the plan.
The appeals board acknowledged that a grant of permission would materially contravene the allocation of 498 new homes for Howth with the application exceeding that amount when combined with other planning applications.
However, the appeals board has stated that the material contravention was justified having regard to the Government’s policy to ramp up the delivery of new housing from its current under-supply set out in Rebuilding Ireland.
The appeals board also cited six other planning policy objectives “all of which support higher density residential development consisting of apartments on public transport corridors within the built up area of Dublin City and its suburbs as proposed in this case”.
The appeals board concluded that the proposal “would not seriously injure the amenities of the area or of property in the vicinity”.
The appeals board also found that the proposal would not damage the natural heritage of the area.
Marlet also has a separate application for 512 units on the former Techrete site at Howth that is currently before the appeals board.
Consultants for Marlet, Tom Phillips & Co stated that the ‘Bailey’ proposal is well designed and complements the existing use within Howth village.
‘Monolithic’
In response to the 177-unit application, the appeals board received over 85 objections including those from public representatives
In his objection against the 177 unit proposal at the Bailey hotel site, Labour Party leader contender, Aodhán Ó’Riordán told the appeals board that “this proposal would introduce a scale of development that is entirely alien to the existing pattern of development which has been sensitively followed by additions to the village over the years”.
Deputy Ó’Riordán contended that the nature of the proposal would be entirely urban or city centre in its feel rather than that of a coastal village on the periphery of the city.
The Labour TD also argued that the proposed Block C near the Martello Tower “would appear monolithic”.
Deputy Ó’Riordán called on the appeals board “to refuse this application and direct the applicant towards a more sensitive development of the lands in a manner that enhances and complements the village rather than harming its unique qualities and threatens the properties of neighbouring sites”.
Deputy Sean Haughey told the appeals board that “the plans constitute and over-development and over intensification of use of the site”.
The Dublin deputy told the board that “there is a general belief that the unique village feel of Howth will be seriously compromised should planning permission be granted”.
Former deputy Tommy Broughan lodged a 28-page objection and told the appeals board that his “constituents remain profoundly opposed to this very high-density development with all the negative structural, traffic, drainage and environmental impacts on neighbouring towns”.
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Thems the rules .. all countries do the same ..
@John Kelly: borders are man-made; nature did not invent lines on maps.
All people should be free to live where the want. Just because someone got to a place first does not give them a natural right to draw a line around it and claim it in perpetuity for their descendants.
A case of “I’m alright jack, pull the ladder up”.
@James Wormold: you’re right, borders are man made. So are poverty, crime, civilization, government, unemployment and economics.
@Declan Edward: yep. If we never had borders -or countries for that matter- poverty, hunger, war would simply not exist as there would be an equilibrium in place for all those things via the free movement of people.
@James Wormold: wow.
@James Wormold: that’s just not right
James Wormold: “Joined June 2019″
Lads, seriously, can ye not see the obvious troll?
@James Wormold: he coulda stayed there if he satisfied the entry criteria.. he hasn’t.. tough case and I feel for them .. nature gave us intelligence and abilities to develop .. we got to deal with these developments. And we haven’t developed utopia yet ..
IMAGINE .. JOHN LENNON
@James Wormold: sorry kid but even I’m not that liberal.
@James Wormold: Do you have a fence bordering your house or a wall bordering your back garden? Do you have locks on your door or do you leave it wide open all day? You do this to keep potentially dangerous people out. So do countries..
@James Wormold: Germany and Sweden tried this. Impact? More rapes than can be counted, proposals to raise the Swedish retirement age to avoid a welfare shortfall, requiring the German media to completely gloss over multiple lone wolf ISIS attacks with false information blaming them on mentally ill natives
@Trenchant Buffoon: balls
@James Wormold: are you in favor of open borders?
@John Kelly: tell that to the native Americans on the reservations
@Anthony Doyle: and who was there before the natives pal???
Why are we using the term “undocumented immigrant”?
The term is “illegal immigrants”.
He’s right, it is unfair on people who apply legally and spend months getting paper work together and spend a lot of money just to get to the point of even applying for a visa that could be rejected. Immigration laws are there for a reason. If there aren’t consequences for people entering illegally the situation will get worse because more and more people just wont bother with the legal process.
@Sam Harms: I’m an immigrant in Ireland. Have lived as immigrant in 4 different countries. Never feared immigration law enforcement. But maybe it’s because I’m the different kind of immigrant…
@Tony Garcia: were you living in the countries illegally?
I love the way Irish people call Irish documented citizen living illegally, “Undocumented”
Arrivals at Dublin Airport will get busy then
The Left loves laws, rules and regulations. The more the better, specially laws with will prevent people from saying things with a a bit “uncomfortable”.
The only law they don’t like is immigration law.
I wonder if we tell Pelosi that people crossing the border illegally, (yes The Jornal, the term is Illegal) are bring to the country plastic straws? Would she change her mind?
At its core, this is a reasonable thing: remove people who have been ordered removed by the courts. I think most people are ok with that. How Trump is playing it is deeply political. It’s a fear play out and out. He is so divisive.
@Kevin O’Donnell: if said people have been there for decades, have homes/careers/kids etc I don’t think “most people” are ok with removing them.
Totally agree with Sam’s point, my son applied legally for his J1 and J2 visa, which the amount of paper work is crazy plus he had to make a visit to the American embassy in Dublin. He did not overstay because I had warned him about ICE.
Journal, stop calling these people “undocumented”. They are illegal immigrants, who have no right to be there and will rightly be deported. These kind of people make a mockery of those who work hard to obtain legal visas through the proper channels.
The idea of starting a life as an illegal in any country is just so silly. You risk loosing everything in a split second. You wouldn’t be able to sleep at night with the worry.
It can be done legally so no sympathy from me for illegal immigrants
Good fences make good neighbors
No fences make no neighbors
Imagine that if you can
you commenters here are just perfect aren’t you. This is a very worrying situation for so many families. If they do go heavy on these raids and lots of Irish get sent home there’ll be a Nice little bill for the Irish taxpayer to pick up at the end of it. Will give you something else to moan about
Good fences make good neighbors
No fences make no neighbors and mainly friends
Imagine that if you can
have your say