Over 500 homes get green light in south Dublin following legal disputes
A 562-unit housing scheme in the south Dublin suburb of Milltown has been given the green light by the council, following legal disputes for the two previous residential schemes on the same site.
The scheme, to be developed by Sandford Living Ltd, a subsidiary of Ardstone, would be built on the corner of Milltown Road and Sandford Road, and is mostly made up of apartments.
556 of the units are to be apartments, consisting of 70 studio units, 176 one-bedroom apartments, 267 two-bedroom units and 43 three-beds. Six three-bedroom courtyard houses will also form part of the scheme.
A café, creche with an outdoor play area, and the reuse of Tabor House and the chapel are all part of the Dublin 6 project.
Apartment blocks on site are planned to be between two and eight storeys tall, down from the previous maximum of 10 storeys.
It is the third such housing scheme to be submitted to Dublin City Council (DCC) for the site since its acquisition by Ardstone from the Jesuit religious order in 2019.
The two former applications have been caught up in legal wrangling, preventing their progression.
Planning was granted in 2021 by An Bord Pleanála for a housing scheme with 667 homes, which was later subject to a judicial review. This was remitted to An Comisiún Pleanála and a decision is pending.
The second application in 2023 was for 636 homes. This was granted permission by DCC and later upheld by An Bord Pleanála, however it is now subject to a judicial review with a High Court hearing expected later this year.
In a statement today, Ardstone chief executive Donal O’Neill said the developer was “keen to urgently progress” with the project.
"In the midst of a housing crisis, it has been absolutely frustrating to have met such resistance to our plans to bring much need housing to this site,” he said.
"If we had been able to commence with our original plans, homes and apartments on this site would be occupied now and this wonderful neighbourhood would be coming to life.”
Mr O’Neill urged local residents to get behind the latest proposal, calling it “a direct response to concerns from the local community about building heights, density and overlooking”.
He added that the company was happy to proceed with the latest proposal, but that if this also gets caught up in “legal arguments”, he hopes one of the other projects will be allowed to proceed.
However, the Norwood Residents Association said that the scheme’s scale would have “an overbearing impact on all residents”, adding that there is “no justification for building structures of the heights proposed so close to existing residences”.
Several local residents lodged standalone objections too, saying the scale, density and traffic implications represent “gross overdevelopment” for the site and area.
As part of their Part V obligations, Sandford Living is proposing that 56 of the homes in the scheme are sold to DCC for their social housing stock. It has put a price tag of €1.03m on the largest three-bedroom apartment.