Planning board rejects Douglas apartments appeal

CORK City Council’s refusal of planning permission for an apartment scheme in the heart of Douglas has been upheld by An Bord Pleanála.

Sirio Investment Management Ltd had sought permission to construct 65 apartments, 45 of which would have been build-to-rent, as well as four commercial units for retail use at East Douglas Street and East Douglas Village.

The application, lodged in October 2021, proposed that the apartments would be spread across three blocks, with 20 apartments in a four- to six-storey block, 15 apartments in a six-storey block, and 30 apartments in an eight- to 10-storey block.

The proposed development would have involved the demolition of two existing buildings and associated structures.

In documentation submitted with the application, it stated that the subject site contains a former Permanent TSB located to the north east of the site and a former Bank of Ireland branch to the south west.

PLANNING REFUSAL

Cork City Council refused planning permission for the proposed development on the basis that it would be “out of character with the pattern of existing development and would be visually obtrusive within the Douglas village streetscape and the Church Street Architectural Conservation Area”.

In its reasoning, the council also noted that the application did not meet objectives set out in the Ballincollig/Carrigaline Municipal District Local Area Plan of 2017.

Sirio Investment Management Ltd subsequently appealed this decision to An Bord Pleanála (ABP).

In the appeal report, it stated that the applicant’s initial intention for the site was to provide a higher density development with around 130 residential units incorporating a taller building but, following pre-application consultation through the strategic housing development (SHD) process and with the benefit of views expressed by Cork City Council and ABP, “the applicant and the professional design team decided to significantly reduce the scale of the proposed development and reduce the height of the tall building to 10 storeys”.

In its decision to uphold the council’s decision, ABP stated that the density of the proposed scheme would fail to comply with the Core Strategy and the Density and Building Height Strategy of the Cork City Development Plan 2022-2028.

The board also deemed that the proposed development — by reason of its height, scale, and design — would represent an “overly dominant and monolithic form of development relative to its immediate environment”.