An Bord Pleanála gives green light for 899-bed student accommodation scheme in Dublin

The appeal board’s granting of planning permission to Malclose Ltd overturns a Dublin City Council planning refusal and a recommendation by its own inspector to refuse planning permission for the scheme, at Carriglea Business Park.

The green light followed Malclose putting forward a 13-storey scheme as a new option at appeal stage after the council refused planning permission for a 15-storey, 941-bed student accommodation scheme.

Malclose – which is a subsidiary of Michael Cox’s Hollybrook Homes – is proposing to also use the bed spaces for short-term lets during student holiday periods.

The council refused planning permission for the site after concluding that the scheme “fails to align with the principle of a 15-minute city” and a number of other grounds.

It refused planning permission on five separate grounds in a comprehensive rejection of the scheme.

However, in its ruling, the appeals board said that it disagreed with both the council and its inspector that the scheme didn’t accord with the principle of a 15-minute city.

The appeals board said there are retail outlets within a 15-minute radius, there is a Luas stop 150 metres from the site and the area is in transition. They said this shows the development accords with the city development plan.

The revised and scaled-down design has had regard to the context and emerging height that has been permitted on sites to the south and west, the board said.

The revised design reduces the scale, bulk and prominence of the building in the street-scape by stepping the height.

The amendments in reducing the height of the scheme, the board said, ensured the design of the building did not undermine the status of the identified landmark buildings within the strategic development and regeneration area for the Naas Road.

The board concludes the scheme addresses the provision of more student accommodation with public transport links easily accessible from the site.

It says that the scheme’s high standard of design creates an attractive place, which will enliven the area without dominating the streetscape, and regenerate a brownfield site.