Controversial North Dublin housing development approved despite heavy criticism

• Author: Dan Grennan
• Published date: 08 November 2021
• Publication title: DublinLive (Ireland)

The €610 million scheme, which is set to be built on the former Holy Cross Seminary lands in North Dublin, went straight to An Bord Pleanala as a Strategic Housing Development.

In their submission to An Bord Pleanala, council planners criticised the fact that one bed and studio apartments would make up 71% of the Build To Rent scheme on Clonliffe Road, Drumcondra.

The plan includes 12 apartment blocks ranging in height up to 18 stories.

However, An Bord Pleanala has ordered one block be reduced in width by 18 meters which will knock 22 apartments off the total number proposed, RTE has reported.

Architects Rob Curley and Alfonso Bonilla, who are members of the Stop Holy Cross College campaign group told Dublin Live that the scale of build-to-rent in this proposal was "completely inappropriate" for the Drumcondra area.

In a joint submission to An Board Pleanála, they said: "The scheme presented in this application is not of high quality, sustainable residential urban design.

"It is a completely unsuitable solution which dramatically fails to address the scale or historical importance of the development in one of Dublin's oldest inner suburbs, despite efforts by the applicant to present it as such. It is hard...