By Maeve Rowan
A Supreme Court judgment has rejected a challenge to Dublin City Council's approval of planning-compliance details for the major Trinity Hall student accommodation development in Dartry.
James Kenny, who lived opposite part of the development, challenged the council's January 2002 decision approving details submitted by Trinity College under conditions attached to planning permission for the new halls of residence.
The project covered about 25,000 square metres and included three student-residence buildings providing 832 bedrooms in 180 apartments, along with dining, retail, laundry and other facilities.
Mr Justice Fennelly addressed four complaints. The first concerned a condition requiring the western arm of Building 3 to be reduced in height by omitting its first floor. Trinity instead removed another floor. The judge found the real objective was to reduce the building's overall height while maintaining the approved façade, and held the council was entitled to accept that solution.
He also rejected a challenge to boilers being located in roof-space plant rooms. The planning documents had already contemplated plant in those spaces, and their precise use was a detail capable of agreement with the council.
A further complaint concerned an increase in bedrooms in Building 2 from the figure shown in earlier material. Fennelly J found there was no increase in the overall 832-bed development and described the internal redistribution as a minor matter of detail.
The one literal departure concerned a tree-protection condition requiring services to remain ten metres from retained trees. That distance was breached in relation to a small number of the site's 275 trees. The judge considered the discrepancy too minor to justify quashing the entire council decision.
He also found that Kenny knew by January 2002 that construction was proceeding contrary to his interpretation of the conditions but waited until the end of the six-month judicial-review period to act. Fennelly J said he would dismiss the appeal and affirm the High Court order.