The co-owners of the Press Up Hospitality group, Paddy McKillen Jnr and Matthew Ryan, have secured planning permission for contentious plans for a €182 million apartment scheme for a site near Blackrock.
Last December, the businessmen's Oval Target Ltd lodged Strategic Housing Development (SHD) plans with An Bord Pleanála for a 493-unit scheme, comprising 11 apartment blocks – one rising to 10 storeys – on land at St Teresa's, Temple Hill, Monkstown, Blackrock.
However, in its decision, An Bord Pleanála has ruled that one five-storey block containing 41 apartments be removed from the scheme and that the use of a first floor in another block be changed from residential to childcare, reducing the number of units further.
Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council had produced a 105-page report recommending that permission be refused.
Oval Target Ltd had previously secured planning permission for 291 residential units in June 2019 on the same site in the face of some local opposition concerning aspects of the scheme. That permission remains in place.
Forty-one objections were lodged against the new scheme, including a number of group objections.
Residents of St Vincent’s Park said that both the density and building heights proposed in the plans exceeded the county plan “to an unacceptable level” but the appeals board said the scheme would “constitute an acceptable quantum and density of development”and would not seriously injure the residential of visual amenities of the area.
The board also concluded that the scheme would be acceptable in terms of height, scale and mass.
As part of the original proposal, Oval Target had put an indicative price tag of €19.99 million on the sale of 50 apartments to the local authority for social housing under its Part V obligations.
The number of Part V apartments to be sold to the council will now be reduced on a pro-rata basis in line with the reduced number of homes approved.
The Part V documentation lodged on behalf of Oval Target put an indicative price of €512,747 on the three-bedroom units, €484,978 on the larger two-bedroom units and €352,291 on the one-bedroom units.
