A plan to build 48 luxury apartments on the site of the Killiney Court Hotel has been challenged by two parties.
Planning permission granted to Rhode (Ireland) Ltd last month by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council was appealed to An Bord Pleanála by Donal O'hAodha with an address at Burnaby, Greystones, Co Wicklow and Bernadette McCormick with an address at Saintbury Avenue, Killiney, Co Dublin.
In his appeal, Donal O'hAodha says the hotel sits on one of most scenic sites in Ireland, with "magnificent sea views" and public lawns open to customers of the hotel. To lose such an amenity and facility in such a unique setting would be "devastating to the people of Dublin and the adjoining area" and the destruction of its function room would be a " huge loss to the people of south county Dublin. The hotel means so much to so many people, it can never be replaced in this beautiful area, once its destroyed."
Diarmuid Ó Grada, planning consultant, on behalf of Bernadette McCormick, pointed to the inappropriate scale, bulk and design of the apartment blocks on a scenic coastline "which is inconsistent with established pattern of house".
He says that, over the past four decades, an accumulation of extensions have appeared, disfiguring the original Victorian house and degrading its setting. "This existing melange is mainly comprised of mediocre 1970s additions. What we now see is a hotchpotch of pastiche Parisian , Rhineland follies and dismal Dublinesque."
The appeal is equally critical of the proposed design, describing it as an "inappropriate pair of dull monolithic blocks" which would stretch out either side of a period house, leaving the old house "belittled and degraded".
The developer Rhode (Ireland) also lodged a first party appeal against several conditions.
A letter of support for the proposed scheme of apartments from a resident of Station Road said the present hotel is a mixture of totally unrelated architectural styles although he was "particularly delighted" that the original house is being preserved. He also contended there is " traffic gridlock" in surrounding areas with the arrival of large buses carrying patrons to and from the hotel.
There is a "considerable landmass on Killiney Hill which is open to the public and commands much better views of Killiney Bay than the hotel site" said the letter.
Another local, architect Dominic Coyle, has waged a campaign to save the hotel and is asking those who support the cause to make an observation/submission to An Bord Pleanála before October 27th.
Dominic Coyle , an architect from Bayview Rise, says the hotel is an essential facility in the area, and well used by the local population.
The original house was one of a group of French chateau-inspired houses built in this country by Deane and Woodward between 1863 and 1865.
