PLANS TO BUILD 852 homes at the site of the former Central Mental Hospital are being held up by just one objector, an Oireachtas Committee will hear.

A judicial review taken by an individual has halted the Land Development Agency (LDA) project which was granted planning permission last year.

In its opening statement to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, chief executive of the LDA John Coleman said Dundrum Central is “an area of extremely high need”.

The LDA, which is a State-sponsored commercial body tasked with finding the “optimum use” for State land, said it carried out “extensive community consultation” during the development’s planning stages.

Now one objector’s judicial review has paused the housing project.

“Such delays significantly add to the cost of projects and we are hopeful that the pending enhancements to the planning laws will help reduce such delays in future,” said Coleman.

Despite the setback, he said the LDA is “well on track to becoming one of the country’s leading home builders, with the unique distinction of being exclusively focussed on affordable and public homes”.

The site

Aerial view of the site

The planning permission covers 9.4 hectares of the site where the old Central Mental Health Hospital used to be situated.

The development would involve over a third of the land being converted into public realms, including landscaped green spaces, which will be open to the public for the first time since the hospital was built in 1850.

The HSE vacated the Central Mental Hospital site in February 2023.

The bulk of the housing units would be apartments, but there will also be duplexes and houses.

Initially, the LDA planned to deliver 1,200 new housing units, including a 14-storey apartment block.

However, following public consultation, the height was scaled back to 11-storeys.

This was then further reduced to seven-storeys when permission was sought in March 2022.

The number of housing units was also reduced from over 1,200 to 852.

Project Tosaigh

The LDA says it aims to deliver 5,000 affordable homes for purchase or rent by the end of 2026.

In his opening statement today, the chief executive said the target is 8,000 homes between 2024 and 2028, “with a firm pipeline of at least 2,500 already delivered, contracted or in advanced negotiations”.

About 1,000 were completed in 2023 as part of Project Tosaigh, an initiative that aims to accelerate delivery of housing on sites with full planning permission that are not currently being developed by private sector owners.

“Without the State intervention here, primarily through the LDA and Approved Housing Bodies, the majority of the housing developments in question, particularly apartment developments, would not otherwise be delivered,” Coleman said.

Including the CMH site, the agency now has planning permission for more than 3,000 homes on public land.

Last year it expressed interest in purchasing privately owned land, with existing planning permission, to increase the output of affordable homes.