PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT:AFTER A five-year planning battle a consortium of high profile developers has been granted planning permission by Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council for an apartment development at the former Solus Tower factory premises at Corke Abbey, Bray, Co Dublin.
The development proposed by Anthony Durkan, Christopher Bennett, Joan Pierce and Conor Kevaney comprises 60 apartments in two blocks ranging in height from two storeys to five storeys all over a basement car-park with 79 spaces.
There would be a mix of 44 two-beds, seven one-beds, and nine three-bed apartments.
The development would also have two roof terraces.
In 2006 the council refused planning permission for 78 apartments on the site and in 2004 An Bord Pleanála refused permission for 88 apartments.
Prior to that, German discount store Lidl was refused planning permission to build a store there.
-Meanwhile Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council has circulated a detailed proposal to councillors informing them it wants to erect 30 JC Decaux advertising signs in the county.
This is a separate proposal to the one announced in February proposing 60 freestanding Clear Channel Ireland advertising billboards projected to make €10 million over 10 years.
Proceeds are earmarked to increase expenditure in the recreation and amenity areas of the council’s budget.
This time around the proposal is for for 30 single and double sided large Europanel metropole signs. While the council is remaining tight lipped on the expected revenue, the venture is expected to generate millions for the council given the size of the structures.
The locations for the billboards are believed to be at the junction of Mount Merrion Avenue and Rock Road, near Blackrock College, at the gateway to Cherrywood and at the entrance to Sandyford Industrial Estate.
The council says that any development by a local authority under a €126,000 threshold is deemed to be exempt from requiring planning permission. In the case of the outdoor advertising sites, each site is being developed individually and the cost is far lower than the €126,000 threshold.
-The Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) has challenged a proposal by Treasury Holding's Spencer Dock Development Company to build an eight-storey office building on North Wall Quay, Dublin 1.
In an appeal letter to An Bord Pleanála, the DDDA says the office block, which was given the green light by Dublin City Council, is contrary to the North Lotts planning scheme 2002 in terms of its impact on the setting and fabric of two protected structures on the site.
The authority also says the development is too commercial in nature and would prevent the developer from delivering the required 20 per cent of social and affordable housing on the site.
The protected structures on the site are the Woolstore and the former Goods Depot and the DDDA says the height and massing would materially detract from their setting.
