Council refuses hotel planning permission 'due to too many hotels in the area'

Gordon Deegan

Dublin City Council has refused planning permission for a planned eight-storey hotel scheme for Dublin 8 as it would exacerbate the existing over-concentration of hotel developments for the area.

Last year, Derek Murtagh lodged plans for the 81 bedroom hotel for Kevin Street Lower and Liberty Lane, Portobello, Dublin 8.

Dublin City Council has now refused planning permission after a report lodged with the application confirmed that between existing and permitted schemes, there are 2,758 hotel bedrooms being provided within 500 metres of the hotel site.

Bedrooms

The report prepared for applicant, Mr Murtagh, by Head of Hotels & Leisure at Savills, Tom Barrett stated that identified 2,200 hotel bedrooms within 500m in 21 hotels in the area and for 558 hotel bedrooms concerning six planned hotels in the planning system "of which we believe only a percentage of these will be built”.

Mr Barrett said that the planned hotel “would be a good addition to this city centre area. It is an ideal location for a hotel, close to St Stephen’s Green and the Luas, but in a developing area of the city and forming a natural link to the former DIT site on Kevin Street, onto the Distillery Quarter and St James Gate and Guinness”.

Mr Barrett stated that Dublin 8 was not a traditional hotel, leisure or corporate destination, but that has been slowly changing.

Mr Barrett stated that with significant investment a small number of hotels have opened in the D8 area between St Stephen’s Green and the Guinness Storehouse in recent years.

However, the Council ruled that the proposed development would exacerbate the existing over-concentration of hotel developments in the south-east quadrant of the city.

Other uses

The council also ruled that the proposal would also prevent the delivery of other uses in this area of the City such as residential, social, cultural and economic uses and fundamentally undermine the vision of the City Development Plan for the provision of a dynamic mix of uses within the city centre and fail to sustain the vitality of the inner city.

The council also refused planning permission after concluding that the hotel scheme’s design, scale, bulk, massing and height represents overdevelopment of the site and would not complement the established built form and character of the surrounding area.

The Council also ruled that the scheme would appear visually incongruous and would cause serious injury to the setting and amenity of the Conservation Area and would negatively impact the setting of an adjacent Protected Structure.

Mr Murtagh has now appealed the council decision to An Bord Pleanála.