More than 250 new local authority homes for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown but councillors at odds over parking
Two major local authority housing schemes are coming to the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (DLR) County Council area, totalling 129 housing units each, councillors were told last week.
The first, at Mount St Mary’s along the Dundrum Road, is made up of one- and two-bedroom apartments in three blocks between two and six storeys tall.
Thirty-five of the units are to be allocated for cost-rental, with the bulk of the remainder affordable purchase homes, with a small social housing contingent.
There are to be 65 car parking spaces, including 12 for electric vehicles, with the scheme, and 180 bike storage spaces.
Several councillors at the monthly council meeting raised issues with the parking specifications of the scheme, saying it would discourage owners from seeing the units as their ‘forever home’.
Councillor Michael Clark said that while he welcomed the scheme overall, the Fianna Fáil member was disappointed by the parking provision.
"Sixty-five car spaces for 129 units, 186 beds and a suggested population in your own documentation of 277 people is just too few,” he told council officials.
“People will not consider these units as their forever home if they are unable to store a car there for the days they don’t walk, for the days they can’t cycle, for the days that public transport options aren’t appropriate or available,” he said.
Green Party councillor Oisín O’Connor said that he supported the scheme and the parking allowance, adding that the units may not fall within affordable purchase guidelines if more spaces were provided.
"I believe that is an issue that has been raised by management in the past,” said Mr O’Connor. “If they were to add more parking spaces, they simply wouldn’t be able to build these developments”.
The second housing development is the provision of another 129 homes at Blackglen Road, Sandyford, at the foot of the Dublin Mountains. It is being developed by the council itself, while Mount St Mary’s is being developed for the council by Winterbrook.
Overall, the 129 units are split between 95 apartments and 34 houses across seven blocks, divided into 72 social housing units, 32 cost-rental units and 24 affordable purchase houses.
Apartments on site will be a mix of 34 one-bedroom units, 39 two-bedroom and 21 one-and-a-half-bedroom dwellings, which are designated ‘age-friendly’ units.
Houses will be a mix of two-bedroom (21 units), three-bedroom (11 units) and two four-bedroom houses.
A significant element of the scheme is the accommodation of existing badger setts on the site, with a 50-metre buffer zone provided along the northern edge of the site beside Fitzsimons Wood.
A total of 138 on-street car parking spaces and 168 bike spaces will be provided for the development.
The two housing schemes are proposed by DLR County Council under Part 8 of the Planning and Development Regulations 2001.