Property developer Michael O’Flynn’s construction firm has to pay the legal costs of An Bord Pleanála’s application for a strike out of the company’s challenge to a new land tax.
High Court judge Mr Justice Anthony Barr on Friday said he was not satisfied the company’s challenge was a test case, so he awarded costs to the planning authority.
Last month, he ruled the challenge by O’Flynn Construction Company to a new tax targeting its undeveloped lands on the Naas Road in Dublin was moot. He struck out the proceedings.
An Bord Pleanála had argued that the original map of taxable lands has been abandoned, with fresh decisions to be issued.
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Mr Justice Barr said the costs of the main proceedings would be relatively small in relation to the drafting of papers and the motion for leave to bring a judicial review and he ruled there should be no order for costs, which means both sides pay their own costs.
On the application of the O’Flynn firm’s senior counsel, Oisín Collins, the judge paused the effects of his orders for 28 days, pending a potential appeal.
The residential zoned land tax (RZLT) was due to apply to eligible lands from last February, but the Minister for Finance delayed its activation by one year and directed local authorities to draw up a fresh list of sites to which it would apply.
The levy, set at 3 per cent of a site’s value, was introduced in Budget 2022 in a bid to encourage home building. Land zoned for residential development before January 1st, 2022, is liable for consideration within the initial scope of the RZLT.
Dublin City Council had zoned the O’Flynn lands, located on the former Nissan site on the Naas Road, for mixed use, which allows for residential development. The O’Flynn group secured 10-year permission in 2021 to develop more than 1,100 apartments on the 19-acre site.
The council and appeals board agreed the lands should be included on the list of sites to be subject to the RZLT from February 2024.
The O’Flynn firm and several other large landowners separately initiated legal challenges over negative determinations from An Bord Pleanála.
However, with the changes introduced by the Minister for Finance, An Bord Pleanála argued in the High Court that the O’Flynn firm’s legal action was now challenging a “redundant” decision.
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