Council has reservations about plans for D4 office block

Dublin City Council said it has reservations about plans to demolish a large city centre office block – Burlington House – and construct a new building on the site that would have nearly triple its floorspace.

Paul McCann, the receiver of Glasbay – a company formerly controlled by developer Bernard McNamara – has made the planning application. He’s been told to submit more information to the council.

The plans for the Dublin 4 site called for the existing five-storey building, extending over 8,500 sqm, to be replaced by another five-storey office block with 23,000 sqm floorspace. Such a development would come at a time when there is a lack of high-profile office space in the core business district of the capital.

But the council was unimpressed with the initial planning application.

“The planning authority has concerns that the proposed development may be visually overbearing on this site, due to the scale of the new building and its relative distances to adjoining sites, particularly the distance of the front building line to the Burlington Road frontage of the site,” it said.

Among the opponents to the plan were former Fine Gael education minister Gemma Hussey and her husband, Derry, who live on Burlington Road. They made an objection on behalf of a number of residents on the road and claimed the new development would intrude on their homes.

They also accused the receiver of attempting to maximise the value of the site by attempting to secure permission for a hugely extended office block.

“This massive increase shows that the receiver is more interested in maximising potential revenue values on behalf of their financial institution client and to a much lesser extent in complying with (the) Dublin City Development plan,” they claimed. Source: The Irish Independent