Developer Tetrarch is appealing Dublin City Council’s refusal of planning permission for a 78-unit “over-65s” scheme on lands around the 18th-century protected structure Sybil Hill House in Raheny, north Dublin.
The Tetrarch senior living plan involves three blocks, with one rising to five storeys, on lands owned by the Vincentian Order located 150 metres from an entrance to St Anne’s Park and adjacent to St Paul’s College. Eight of the units in the scheme are earmarked for the use of the Vincentian Order.
Some 50 submissions about the scheme were lodged with the council, mainly by local residents. One objection came from RTÉ broadcaster Lottie Ryan.
Consultant for Tetrarch Capital, Tom Phillips + Associates, now contends before An Bord Pleanála that the council’s refusal was “incorrect”. The appeal states that the proposed height, scale, massing and layout of the integrated retirement community/assisted living scheme “is entirely appropriate in this setting”.
Tetrarch Capital is proposing in a revised scheme for the appeals board that three units from one block be omitted, resulting in the proposed development now comprising 75 units – 52 one-bed and 23 two-bed units.
On behalf of Tom Phillips + Associates, Stephen Barrett states the designers of the scheme have had regard to Sybil House, with the building playing an integral role in the scheme. He says it “will provide much-needed senior independent living and assisted living accommodation in the community” and highlights the “high-quality public open space and communal open space” it will feature.
In a joint objection with her husband Fabio Aprile, Ms Ryan and Mr Aprile claimed that the proposal gives rise to a significant loss of residential amenity to adjacent properties.
In points echoed in other objections submitted by locals, the couple also claimed that the proposed two- to five-storey structures “will significantly impact on the character of Sybil Hill House resulting in the degradation of the contributions made by the protected structure on the area”.
