PLANS TO CONSTRUCT a €475 million redevelopment of DIT’s former Kevin Street Campus in Dublin have secured the green light.

This follows An Bord Pleanála granting a 10 year planning permission to Shane Whelan’s Westridge Real Estate for the development of 53,110 sq ft of office accommodation in two 11-storey blocks alongside 299 build to rent apartments across three buildings of up to 14 storeys in height.

Westridge acquired the 3.57 acre site for €140 million in August 2019 and a report lodged with the plans by EY estimates that the total output that the redevelopment will generate over 10 years is €7.67 billion.

Dublin City Council granted planning permission for the scheme last year but the decision was appealed by eight parties – the Residents of Camden Row; Kevin Street Apartment CLG; New Bride St Residents Group; Ruairi O Cuiv and Jennifer Traynor; Gerard Doyle, Bernie Devlin and others; Chevron Nolan, Essam Bishara
and Eilis Brennan.

In its decision, the appeals board has ordered the removal of one floor from the proposed five storey Block C.

The board concluded that the scheme “would not seriously injure the residential or visual amenities of the area”.

The board granted planning permission after the inspector in the case stated that the principle of the mixed use scheme is acceptable and appropriate for this brownfield city site.

Recently elected TD Ivana Bacik lodged an observation to An Bord Pleanála with party colleagues in support of the local residents’ appeals.

A Senator at the time of lodging the observation, the Labour Party deputy told the appeals board that the planned scheme “is over-scaled and over-massed”.

The observation also stated that “we remain concerned that this proposed development will have a deleterious effect on the quality of life for residents in the locality”.

The Bacik observation stated that “while we are very much in favour of increasing the housing stock in our city to alleviate our housing and homelessness crisis, we remain concerned that the proposed housing mix in this application will not contribute to the creation of sustainable communities in the area”.

The observation states that there remains multiple concerns over the scheme and “that the proposed height and design of the development will have a stark visual impact on the area”.

Former Environment Editor with The Irish Times Frank McDonald also lodged an observation in support of the objectors’ views.

McDonald told the appeals board that “the height, scale and mass of the proposed development would fundamentally change the character of the area leaving existing residents to live cheek by jowl with this imposing representation of the ‘New Dublin’.