Council tells couple to significantly reduce plans for 'mega-home' for Lahinch

Gordon Deegan

Clare County Council has told the applicants for a ‘mega-home’ to submit revised plans to significantly reduce the size of the home at Seapark in Lahinch.

This follows the council writing to applicants, Leonard and Valarie O’Brien to tell them that their proposal “would constitute clear overdevelopment of the site”.

A number of locals in the seaside resort of Lahinch are opposing plans by the O'Briens to demolish the new home purchased for almost €1m last year and build a new home in its place.

Last summer, Leonard and Valarie O’Brien paid out €987,000 for their 1,690 sq ft Hy-Brasil home at Seapark, Lahinch and lodged plans in May with Clare Co Council to demolish the property and in its place construct a home more than double the size at 4,273 sq ft.

One objection has dubbed the O’Brien house plans a ‘mega-home’ and now the Council has told the couple that the proposal site is located in a prominent elevated and exposed area of Lahinch and is visible from Main Street and the promenade.

The council letter states that “having regard to the visually vulnerable nature of this site along this urban skyline and the significant height, bulk, scale, massing and flat-roofed design of the proposed dwelling of this site of limited size, the planning authority considers that the proposed development would not be in keeping with the existing built vernacular of the area in terms of scale and design and would constitute a visually incongruous feature in this area”.

The council said that the planned O’Brien replacement home “would constitute the clear overdevelopment of the site, would result in overbalance issues for the adjacent sites and would set an undesirable precedent for other similar developments in the area."

It stated that the revised proposal “should include significant reductions in the overall scale of the proposal, and should also be a design that would assist in its visual integration into this urban site”.

The sales brochure for Hy-Brasil last summer described it "as a rare coastal gem overlooking the Atlantic, perched in a truly commanding position overlooking Lahinch Beach”.

However, a report lodged with the O’Brien planning application identified a number of shortcomings with their new house and includes photos showing rotten window frames, structural cracks on external walls and rising damp when outlining the case for demolition of the property.

An architect’s design statement submitted by David M Leahy Architects sought to justify demolition by stating that the home has very poor thermal performance and extremely low BER rating; deterioration of all windows and building fabric; structural cracking throughout; inefficient and outdated electrics and plumbing and dampness throughout the whole house.

The four-bedroomed Hy-Brasil was built in the early 1970s and is located only two doors from Thalassa, Seapark and Thalassa’s new owners, Brian and Susan Crowley, in May secured the planning green light from the council to demolish Thalassa, which they purchased for €1m last summer, and build a replacement home.

David Leahy states that overall, the replacement home for the O’Briens “represents a sensitive contemporary house design that responds appropriately to its site”.

However, in an objection lodged by Paul McAleese, Barbara McAleese and Tom McAleese of Seapark, architect Michael Leahy stated that “the quantum of development proposed is excessive for the site in question”.

Leahy stated that his clients’ most significant concern is in regard to possible blockage of light from the west side.