Plans by the Leinster Branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) to redevelop rugby facilities in Donnybrook have been challenged locally.
Six parties have appealed a seven-year planning permission granted to the IRFU by Dublin City Council to build 111 apartments in eight blocks and new clubhouse facilities on a six-acre site off the Donnybrook Road where the Leinster team plays some of its matches.
This would involve demolishing the Bective Rangers football and lawn tennis clubhouse and replacing it with a new three-storey clubhouse with a gym, offices, kitchens, a bar and a television and media press box.
It would also get a new viewing stand and two entrance stiles from Donnybrook Road as well as additional terracing, four tennis courts, practice courts, a scrummage area and a 452-metre long river walkway linking Anglesea Bridge with Herbert Park.
A separate planning permission granted to Old Wesley Rugby Football Club and the Leinster Branch of the IRFU by Dublin City Council has been appealed to An Bord Pleanála by two parties. The proposal is to demolish obsolete buildings and build a new three-storey building containing changing rooms, and a hospitality/entertainment suite. The existing Old Wesley clubhouse would be renovated and upgraded.
Hugh and Catherine O'Donnell, who own two apartments in Anglesea Court on Anglesea Road in Dublin 4, believe the proposed three-storey changing room and entertainment premises will be substantially larger in scale and height than existing buildings and will dominate the surrounding area.
They believe the building will affect the privacy of Anglesea Court and will cast a shadow over the surrounding area, reducing open space and views, dominating the skyline and affecting property values. Other concerns are the amount of traffic generated from the development and the noise emanating from function rooms.
The Residents Group, made up of Eglinton Road residents, believe the retention of a small part of the existing clubhouse would be visually disruptive and its scale and set-back distance from the Dodder river would contravene special zoning within a conservation area.
They contend that "consideration" should be given to the "unsightly spectacle of teenage disco patrons being forced to queue/mill for lengthy time spans outside the grounds without access to toilet facilities". The retention of part of the existing pavilion would "seriously compromise the overall visual environment of the grounds and would not contribute to good urban street design".
