Development of infill sites around the capital is ramping up, as developers seek to acquire old houses on nice plots of land, demolish them and replace them with new developments of townhouses or apartments. The combination of planners now favouring high-density schemes, the much-publicised housing shortage and the new help-to-buy scheme is creating a well of demand, and the path to the showhouse launch day should be smooth; but difficulties in traversing the planning process highlight the problems these types of developments can encounter, as residents object and planners put obstacles in the way.

It also questions the appropriateness of replacing backfill schemes in established low-density estates, which may not have the infrastructure, with high-density developments.

Take the stretch of road on the N11 between Newtownpark Avenue and Foxrock Church. Back in 2015, Thycar Investments acquired Aberdour for €2.7 million, a partially-built house on a 1.23-acre site – a considerable premium on the €1.5 million asking price.

Late last year, Thycar, established in 2015 by Ranelagh-based accountant John McCarthy, applied for permission from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to build 48 apartments on the site: five one-bed, 37 two-beds and six three-bed apartments. Parking is to be largely underground, with 63 car spaces, and just six car spaces above ground.

The house lies on a plot which has 60m of road frontage onto the N11. However, the planning application says that access to the development will be from Knocksinna Court, with the existing entrance to the site from Stillorgan Road closed permanently.

Thycar has set out indicative prices for the development of €341,661 for a one-bed, €462,238 for a two-bed and €587,320 for a three-bed, in a communication with the council on Part V or affordable housing obligations.

Public meeting

Now residents, fearing the impact an additional 63 cars will have on the quiet suburban road, have come together to object. In early January, a public meeting was held, with over 70 households and 10 councillors from the Blackrock, Dún Laoghaire and Stillorgan wards in attendance, with all expressing unanimous objection to the project. Some 74 objections have since been lodged with the council.

Local residents object in particular to fears about traffic congestion, local sewage and drainage infrastructure, and the access route proposed by the developers, which could cause “massive delays if the oversized development proceeded”, as one respondent noted.

Local resident Graham Stubbs, a member of the Knocksinna Court Residents Association, says the residents' objection is not with the development per se – it's with the present development proposals.

“Sites like Aberdour have the potential to help ease the housing crisis. However, they must be developed in a way that is a win for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, a win for the developer but also a win for existing local residents,” he says, suggesting that “an appropriate-density development at Aberdour using its existing access onto the N11 should be the preferred option”.

“Knocksinna Court is a quiet cul-de-sac. It is a very narrow roadway, fenced off, and it has served the five residences for 35 years,” he says, arguing that the development “just does not seem to make sense from a good planning perspective”.

But the developer’s preference for an exit via the housing estate, rather than the N11, may make sense given the experience of other developers in the area.

Derelict houses

Across the N11 Kingscroft, a subsidiary of homebuilder Abbey, has experienced difficulties in getting planning approved for a 0.48-hectare site consisting of two derelict houses named Funchal and Garryknock.

In 2015, it applied to build nine three-storey family homes on the site, but permission was refused on the grounds that it wasn’t high-density enough. Subsequently, in September of last year, Kingscroft again applied for planning permission, but this time it applied to build 29 units in total (which would give it a density of almost 58 per hectare). However, its application was also refused before Christmas, mainly, it seems, because it had intended that access to the development would be via the “heavily trafficked Stillorgan Road (N11)” and would therefore “endanger public safety by reason of traffic hazard and would have a seriously adverse impact on the carrying capacity of this national road”.

These aren’t the only such developments in the area. In nearby Granville Road, Floramount is a new development where construction has begun on 12 houses on a site that was previously home to a house called Trianon. The house, on 1.6 acres, sold for €1.75 million in 2014. Floramount, backed by serial investor Brendan Gilmore, property developer Gerry Haughey and estate agent Des Donnelly, was originally turned down in its first application to build 10 houses on the site, on the grounds that it wasn’t high-density enough. The application was also fiercely opposed by locals, with more than 50 objections lodged against the planned development.

Permission

Since then, however, Floramount received permission to demolish the original house and build 12 two- to four-bed detached and terraced units on the site. One of the houses is a bungalow and the others three-storey properties, all with off-street parking. Access to the development will be via Knocksinna Crescent and construction is under way.

Similarly, Targeted Investment Opportunities ICAV, an umbrella fund managed by Oaktree Capital, has been successful with its application to demolish a house, Rockall, on Torquay Road, Foxrock, and replace it with 35 apartments. It acquired the site for €3.39 million in 2015, and an earlier application to build 45 apartments on the site was turned down because it constituted “over-development”.

Close by, on Foxrock’s Leopardstown Road, Victoria Homes has applied to demolish an Edwardian home, Lissadell, in order to develop its 0.45-acre site. In all, the house will be replaced with four semi-detached and three terraced houses. No doubt the developer hopes to be more successful than previous applicants; back in 2007 an application to build seven apartments and four townhouses on the site was turned down, on the grounds that the applicant did not give sufficient reason to demolish the house, which was deemed by the council to be “a valuable contribution to the housing stock of the area”.