Gordon Deegan
New Government fast-track planning rules have delivered planning permission for more than 4,300 residential units over the past year.
In addition to the 4,380 housing units, made up of 2,272 houses and 2,108 apartments, a further 4,085 student bed spaces have secured planning permission under the Government’s Strategic Housing Development legislation.
During the same period, a total of 1,575 residential units have been refused by An Bord Pleanála under the new regime.
That is according to An Bord Pleanála which has published an official update one year after the introduction of the Government's Strategic Housing Development rules.
The board has confirmed that all applications to date have been decided within the mandatory timeline of 16 weeks.
The new planning rules were introduced in July 2017 by Government in a bid to address the crisis in the housing and in the student accommodation sectors.
Instead of applications having to go through Council level and then onto An Bord Pleanála (where there is an appeal) in a process that can sometimes take over one year and more, developers can by now bypass local authorities if their plans are for more than 100 homes and 200 student bed spaces.
The planning rules dictate that the applications be made direct to An Bord Pleanála and the appeals board must decide on such planning applications within a mandatory 16 week period.
In its update, An Bord Pleanála has revealed that of the 23 applications decided upon, planning permission has been granted in 18 cases and refused in five comprising of a total of 1,575 residential units.
A further 11 planning applications are currently under consideration by the appeals board.
The 11 applications are made up of 2,193 residential units in Dublin, Galway, Kildare and Cork and 394 student bed spaces in Galway.
The new planning regime suffered a blow when An Bord Pleanála admitted in the High Court in June that it made an error in granting planning permission to Crekav Trading to build 104 houses and 432 apartments on former playing fields east of St Paul’s College, beside St Anne’s Park in Raheny.
The appeals board admitted its error after residents from Clontarf and two environmentalists took a High Court judicial review of the An Bord Pleanála decision.
The application has been sent back to the appeals board to evaluate once more.
Of the 34 applications received by the appeals board over the past year, Dublin accounted for 17 applications with seven in Kildare, four in Galway and six in Cork.
The largest housing development given the go-ahead was for 608 housing units, made up of 496 houses and 112 apartments, and this development is located at Ballinglanna, Glanmire.
The largest student accommodation development was for 2,178 bed spaces at UCD.
Earlier this year, the appeals board fired a warning shot across the bows of developers availing of the new fast-track planning laws aimed when it refused planning permission to a Galway developer for 113 new homes at Bearna outside Galway city because the density of the development was not high enough.
The application was being opposed by a number of locals in Bearna who had expressed concerned at what they believed was the excessive scale and density of the development.
Now the developers, Burkeway Ltd have lodged fresh plans, this time for 197 dwellings made up of 107 homes and 90 apartments, in a bid to comply with Ministerial guidelines on density.
Those wishing to make submissions on the plan have until September 3 to do so.
