Almost a year after it was criticised by An Bord Pleanála for the small size of apartments in a proposed scheme of over 400 units for the former Premier Dairies site in Churchtown, Dublin 14, St James Developments Ltd has got the green light from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for a scaled-down development .
The county council has granted permission for a 266-unit residential development on the site at Whitehall Road off Nutgrove Avenue.
This time around St James Developments, whose directors are Liam Kelly, Edward Keegan and John O'Connor, has been granted planning permission for a scheme of 62 terraced houses and 204 apartments in three blocks rising to five storeys. Around 20 per cent of the units will be social and affordable housing.
The scheme was approved despite objections from a number of locals concerned about overdevelopment of the site, traffic congestion on the Whitehall Road, and isolation of the social and affordable element by a boundary wall.
In November last year An Bord Pleanála turned the developer down for 407 homes citing the small size of apartments, traffic dangers and poor design.
The smallest single bedroom apartment in the Churchtown development was just 38sq m (409sq ft). The biggest one-bed apartment was just 50sq m (538sq ft).
The planning board also ruled that the development would endanger the public by creating a traffic hazard and serious traffic congestion close to a school on narrow residential roads.
