Plans to build a €490 million city quarter at the former John Player cigarette factory on the South Circular Road in Dublin 8 have been been opposed by locals.
An Bord Pleanála has received eight appeals to planning permission for 484 apartments, 10,000sq m (107,639sq ft) of retail space in 13 units, as well as an anchor store combining both food and clothing.
The development would comprise five blocks with 270 apartments and townhouses, a medical centre and a leisure centre with a swimming pool. The buildings will range in height up to 11 storeys.
It will also include over 3,000sq m (32,292sq ft) of education/community facilities and 2,000sq m (21,528sq ft) of office space.
In December, Dublin City Council granted planning permission for Players Square to be developed by a joint venture between UK urban regeneration specialist Bee Bee Developments Ireland and leading developer PJ Walls.
In his appeal to the board, Gavin Lyons, with an address at St Catherine's Avenue off the South Circular Road, said the high rise development would cause surrounding two-storey houses to be "severely overlooked".
He says that all of the social and affordable houses will be confined to two blocks and "would constitute excessively sharp territorial boundaries between different housing origins".
Christopher and Gillian Plockelman, who also live on St Catherine's Avenue, say in their appeal that the development segregates social housing "and its scale dwarfs and overwhelms our small long settled communities. Its density implies low standards of accommodation that will not attract a stable and settled community."
Una Sugrue, with an address at Lauderdale Terrace, says there is inadequate provision for families within the scheme, with the majority of apartments being one and two-bed units. She also has concerns about excessive density and increased traffic having an impact on the residential streets surrounding the site.
Other issues include the architectural expression of the buildings, the quality of the urban spaces provided and the architectural relationship with surrounding streets, buildings and open spaces.
The site comprises the now disused John Player factory and industrial buildings on South Circular Road.
The concept behind the design was to bring the site back into a neighbourhood setting, with new streets, squares and open spaces connecting and opening up the north-south and east-west axis with links to Cork Street and Clanbrassil Street.
The same developers are also involved in an adjoining 3.8-acre site, formerly the Bailey Gibson offices and warehouses.
