The High Court has quashed planning permission for a 231-home development at Mount St Marys off the Dundrum Road in Dublin 14 following a challenge by the management company for the neighbouring Churchfields estate.
An Bord Pleanála granted Winterbrook Homes Limited permission in August 2021 for the residential scheme and associated works. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council’s chief executive had recommended refusal, while the Board’s inspector recommended approval subject to conditions.
Churchfields Management Company challenged the decision on several grounds. The decisive issue concerned the treatment of the site as institutional land under the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Development Plan 2016-2022 and the requirement for a comprehensive masterplan.
The lands had previously formed part of a larger holding owned by the Marist Fathers. That holding included the development site and adjoining sports fields used by Catholic University School. Winterbrook’s masterplan covered its own development lands but did not include those playing fields.
Ms Justice Emily Farrell held that the institutional designation applied to the full area owned by the Marist Fathers when the development plan was adopted, including both the buildings and the sports fields. The court found that the lands shared common ownership and institutional-related use and should be treated as one institutional site for the purposes of the plan.
That meant the development plan required a comprehensive masterplan covering both parts. None had been submitted. The proposed departure from that requirement had also not been identified by the developer as a material contravention, a step which would have allowed the required statutory procedure and public participation to occur.
The judge therefore upheld Churchfields’ challenge on those grounds and said it was unnecessary to decide the remaining issues, including other alleged contraventions and challenges involving the State.
The Board’s August 2021 permission was quashed. Consequential orders were left for a later hearing.