A plan by the developer Seán Dunne for a 32-storey building on the Jurys and Berkeley Court hotel sites in Ballsbridge, Dublin, looks set to fall foul of the planning authorities.
A new draft area plan for Ballsbridge, which would have allowed some high-rise development in the area as well as land in the area to be rezoned from residential to retail and commercial use, was rejected last night by local area councillors.
The southeast area committee of Dublin City Council met to consider the plan and decided to reject it on the grounds that it would allow too dense a development at Ballsbridge, which would not respect the residential character of the area.
Their recommendation will now go before a full meeting of the city council in June or July.
Under the planning laws the decision to accept or reject an area plan must be made by a full council meeting. But it is believed unlikely that the full council would not take on board the local area committee's recommendation.
Wendy Hederman, a Progressive Democrats councillor for the area, said the decision by the area committee last night was a unanimous one.
Councillors from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour and the PDs rejected it. "My view was that just because somebody paid a high price for a site doesn't mean we have to allow high rise, or that different planning considerations apply," she said.
Mr Dunne is understood to have paid about €380 million last year for the seven-acre Jurys/Berkeley Court site.
The draft area plan for Ballsbridge was written by town planning consultants Urban Initiatives and was earlier put out for public consultation, when it attracted some 266 submissions.