DUBLIN CITY manager John Tierney has defended his decisions to approve two major high-rise developments in Ballsbridge even though the area is not specifically identified as a suitable location for tall buildings.
In an interview with The Irish Times, he said the schemes put forward by developers Seán Dunne and Ray Grehan for two adjoining sites in the heart of Ballsbridge were "exceptional proposals which we took a view on".
Mr Tierney said the fact that both developers had paid high prices for the Jurys-Berkeley Court and former UCD Veterinary College sites was "not a planning issue" and had not influenced the decisions to approve buildings up to 18 storeys high.
Both schemes are currently under appeal to An Bord Pleanála, with more than 20 appeals lodged against Mr Grehan's proposal for the Veterinary College site and an unprecedented 127 appeals on Mr Dunne's plans for the hotel sites.
Asked about the fact that Ballsbridge is not mentioned in Dublin City Council's recent policy document, Maximising the City's Potential: A Strategy for Intensification and Height, the city manager said this document allowed for "exceptional proposals".
Even though the area was not among those identified as suitable high-rise locations, he said the two schemes were in line with the city development plan's overall objective to make Dublin a "dynamic, mixed use, visually attractive, world-class city".
"We would all agree that urban sprawl is a disaster for the country, particularly in terms of the commuting it creates", Mr Tierney said.
"So we need to increase density to have a more compact connected city, while maintaining that distinctive 'Dublin feel' to it".
He conceded there was "fear about density and height", especially among people living in areas where high-rise schemes were proposed, but said their "sons and daughters who need accommodation don't get included in that debate".
The city manager said he could only deal with development proposals on their merits. "I'm not saying that the Ballsbridge or Clarence Hotel decisions were easy decisions to make, but exceptional proposals were put forward in both cases which we took a view on".
One of the main purposes of the new strategy on height and density was to define planning policy in this controversial area.
"It concerned me the number of proposals we were getting for tall buildings, and we wanted to put some shape on that", he said.
Apart from identifying a number of areas as suitable high-rise locations, the strategy says there would be scope for "exceptional high-quality buildings with taller forms" elsewhere if they made an "outstanding contribution to the regeneration of the city".
But Dublin was likely to remain a predominantly low-rise city, as only a "very small proportion" of its land area was being targeted for high-rise development, Mr Tierney said. Very few tall buildings had actually been built, and the highest was still Liberty Hall.
Speaking in advance of a major conference on the height strategy, he urged developers to engage in more pre-planning consultation about their proposals so as to "create understanding" among the public of what was being planned.
He also said the city council would be developing a digital three-dimensional model of the city, into which framework plans and even planning applications could be slotted so that people would be able to appreciate their impacts in advance.
