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Grangegorman SDZ Oral Hearing – The last hurdle?

Colin Broderick — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:23:14 +0000

So as the end of the planning procedure element of the redevelopment of St Brendans Hospital or Grangegorman as we have all come to know draws to a close, what do we think of it? Will it be built? Should it be built in absence of the LUAS line which is supposed to serve it directly but only kind of does because it skirts along one edge? (Although it has a slightly better chance of survival than metro north)

Its funny when i started in DIT as many who came before can say, on the my first day i was told by the time your in 4th year you’ll be in Grangegorman, so like 10 years after DIT embarked down the road, finally settling on the Strategic Development Zone model last year, planning is drawing to a close.

The Masterplan is available on the Grangegorman Development Agency website

The last hurdle to jump before the final Bord Decision, is the Oral Hearing. I think it might be useful for anyone even remotely interested in how the process works to make the trip to Bord Pleanala at 64 Marlborough Street on 24th November. Full details below:

ZD2005
Grangegorman, Dublin 7. (GRANGEGORMAN)

Case Type:
Planning Scheme in Strategic Devel. Zone (Board Reference: PL29Z.ZD2005)

Description
Grangegorman Strategic Development Zone Planning Scheme

Date lodged
19/08/2011

Decide By
22/12/2011

Location:
Offices of An Bord Pleanála

Date:
10:00, 24/11/2011

Source: pleanala.ie

As always!

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Open Data – Ever wondered where all the applications are?

Colin Broderick — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:44:16 +0000

I’m quiet a big fan of all the nice open data initiatives that are ongoing throughout our country and i’m really impressed with the much larger effort in the uk.

When the Fingal Open Data Hub appeared on the map i thought sweet, i can go do something with their data but I really wasn’t sure at all, until now! Below are all planning applications in Fingal for the last 7 years. Thanks to the power of Google Refine and Fusion Tables its now easier than ever to produce a map.

Little markers on the map is cool and all but you can also make heat maps! Unfortunately this is a rather limited feature in that you have to be zoomed out quiet far for it to work. When you zoom in the red hot spots never appear. See for yourself:

This map has been filtered just to show those that have been decided and to discount those that were either invalid or withdrawn.

Unsuprisingly the areas with the highest concentration of applications are in the main residential areas of Swords, Blanchardstown and the Malahide/Howth area. It would be nice to be able to show only those applications that were granted outline permission or just were granted.

What Next?

Well I have since discovered that if you go over to the Dublinked website the planning application register for the 5 Dublin county councils, although some are for members only. This is fantastic and I can’t wait to get stuck into that data to try and produce a dublin area map showing where the applications all were from year to year.

Unfortunately I hit a snag in that the Dublin City data is badly put together in that the data file is in a comma seperated format but for some reason in the description and the address fields there are commas which are not escaped therefore breaking the data structure when you import. I’ve emailed the lovely people in Maynooth about the problem, I’ve yet to receive a response.

[UPDATE] The Fingal Planning Application data from DubLinked has the decisions, the agents plus much more! Its taking a bit of time to get the details into fusion tables so I can map it fairly easily so stay tuned for an update.

As always!

Comments are welcome, you can follow me on the tweet machine @Rusty1052. Only want the blog? Subscribe to the RSS Feed with your favorite reader!

Do you like what you have just read? Maybe you are interested in being a guest writer too. Email me at colinb@dt106ers.com

[Pictures] Dublin Real Time Passenger Information

Colin Broderick — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 23:01:00 +0000

Was on the way to get the bus home today when I came across one of these at the 27B bus stop on Eden Key outside SIPTU:

RTPI sign and waiting Dublin Bus on Eden Key (Photo: Colin Broderick)

What is it you might ask? Why it’s realtime passenger information as deployed by the QBN Office! I must confess I was a non believer that this would ever happen in Dublin, but I have been proven wrong, there it is at a bus stop during its initial testing phase before full live deployment. The project as far as I am aware is due for completion in Q2 2011. [Reference to follow]

Interesting to note is that the sign appears to be branded “Transport for Ireland.” I wonder will it be abbreviated to TFI? I can’t seem to find any reference to on google searches, but who knows this could be the new marketing name for our integrated transport systems. Obviously just copying Transport for London (TFL) .

HOLD THE PHONE!

There is a live test version of the RTP information available here: http://dublin.acisconnect.com/
Not all of the routes are live but some of the main bus stops are though as witnessed below:

ACIS Dublin RTPI test site, using Open Street Map

If you are interested in how the RTPI is implemented and its current progress you should check out this presentation by Brendan O’Brien from the Dublin City Council, IT Department.

DCC RTPI Presentation, Nov. 2011 (Click Image to View)

It would also appear that the Quality Bus Network Office have a new website in development, I stumbled across it’s test site before christmas and meant to post a link on the blog. Of note is the map showing the current QBC Network which displays the two orbital routes numbered 11 and 12.

Let me know what you think of the project so far, comments as always are welcome!

Dublin City Council erecting Real Time Passenger (RTP) information signs

Colin Broderick — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 23:18:57 +0000

This pole appeared over night at the 41 bus stop on Abbey Street, so I am assuming it is only a matter of time before we have signs attached and working real time passenger (RTP) information similar to other european cities. According to a recent tweet by Minister Ciaran Cuffe RTP is to be launched before the end of this month.

Finally out of the dark ages regarding Bus transport, next stop integrated ticketing, although i have my grievances about the implementation they have proposed, but that’s for a separate post another day. Apologies for the poor quality of the picture, really harsh sunshine this evening!

Poolbeg incinerator work set to restart

Colin Broderick — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 10:59:11 +0000

OLIVIA KELLY

CONSTRUCTION OF the controversial Poolbeg incinerator could restart within months following the decision of An Bord Pleanála to grant permission to Dublin City Council to compulsorily purchase land required for the facility.

An Bord Pleanála will this week write to the council to say that it does not intend to hold public hearings on the application to acquire 65 plots of land along the coastline.

The letter will give the council the authority to confirm its compulsory purchase order (CPO) for the land.

The decision means the council will no longer need a foreshore licence from Minister for the Environment John Gormley to develop a water-cooling facility for the development, which was the last barrier to the construction of the 600,000 tonne capacity incinerator.

Construction of the incinerator began last December but has been suspended since May because, developers Covanta said, of the lack of a foreshore licence which had been applied for in August 2008.

Mr Gormley has previously said that he is not delaying making a decision on the licence, as responsibility for foreshore licences was only transferred to his department last January

By taking ownership of the land, the council would no longer need the licence as it would have automatic access to the river water.

The council applied for the order in the middle of August last following a request by Covanta.

The compulsory purchase order process is often a considerably lengthy one, involving protracted oral hearings.

However, An Bord Pleanála said they received no valid objections to the order and so there was no requirement for a hearing.

The board did receive objections from residents’ associations and environmental groups to the compulsory purchase of the land but, as these were not “notice parties”, ie owners of the land, it dismissed their appeals.

The owners of the land, a 1.7sq km plot, are the Minister for Finance (on behalf of the State), the Dublin Port Company and the council itself.

The Dublin Port Company said it had no objection to the order as it would have “no impact on the operations of the port”.

Under the CPO process, the council must publish a notice stating that the order has been confirmed after it receives the letter from An Bord Pleanála.

Three weeks after publication, the order becomes operative and negotiations then begin on the level of compensation to be paid to the landowners.

However, there is provision within this timeframe for a judicial review of the CPO decision to be sought.

It is unlikely that any of the three landowners will take this step, as they didn’t object to the order in the first place.

Other parties could seek a review, if they can establish that they have a “substantial interest” in the land.

Legal sources specialising in planning law said that this would be difficult for anyone to establish if they weren’t the owners of the land, particularly if they had already been excluded from the process by An Bord Pleanála.

Damien Cassidy, who is chairman of the Ringsend, Sandymount and Irishtown Environmental Group, was among those whose objections to the order was considered invalid by An Bord Pleanála.

The group had objected on the grounds that the compulsory purchase order lands included part of a public road and footpath.

At the time it submitted the order, the council said that it had no intention of blocking the public right of way.

IrishTimes

Developers to face high-rise curbs as council agrees plan

Colin Broderick — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:00:34 +0000

DEVELOPERS ARE facing severe restrictions on the construction of high-rise buildings in Dublin city following the introduction of the new Dublin City Development Plan next year.

City councillors last night agreed to ban the construction of buildings above 28m (92ft) – about half the height of Liberty Hall – unless a statutory plan called a Local Area Plan (Lap) was drafted for the area in question. Such a plan could take several years to develop.

This would block the construction of any further high-rise or even medium-rise buildings in areas previously earmarked by the council for tall buildings such as the Docklands, Heuston and Connolly stations and George’s Quay.

The Lap, which functions as a development plan specific to a particular area, would have to specify maximum building heights allowed. Until a local area plan was approved all developments would have to remain low rise. Councillors last night agreed to define low rise as up to six storeys in relation to residential buildings and seven storeys for office buildings or a maximum height of less than 28m.

The development of Laps has been a fraught process within the council. Attempts were made over several years to introduce a LAP for Ballsbridge but the plan fell apart when agreement could not be reached on whether to allow a “landmark” tall building.

The amendment to the draft development plan in relation to the development of Laps was agreed last night as a compromise motion. Several councillors had wanted caps on height, and some motions would have seen high rise defined as under 30m.

However the agreed amendment, by effectively deferring any decision on maximum heights, makes the city development plan worthless as a guide to developers as to where applications for tall building would be considered.

The draft plan will be released for a further round of consultation before being formally agreed by councillors later this year.

City manager John Tierney in his report to councillors on the plan had warned putting restrictive caps on heights would have “severe repercussions for the city’s competitiveness”.

IrishTimes

No water reserves in Dublin – report

Colin Broderick — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 19:17:12 +0000

WATER SUPPLY in the greater Dublin area is on a knife-edge, with demand likely to outstrip available reserves within a few years, according to a report prepared by consultants for seven local authorities.

The capital has no strategic reserves of water when it should have 10-20 per cent reserves at a minimum, while existing sources are operating near sustainable limits, the report by consultants RPS-Veolia JV states.

Dublin city councillors this week approved the consultants’ main proposal to bring excess water from the basin of the Shannon river to meet needs in the east and midlands.

The decision was taken by the council’s environment and engineering strategic policy committee (SPC) following a presentation by the consultants working for the Dublin Supply Project.

It is expected to be confirmed by the entire council later this year and will then go to An Bord Pleanála following a six-month consultation period.

The plan, the first major water supply project since the Liffey was dammed at Poulaphouca and Leixlip in the 1940s, will cost €470 million to construct over 10 years, with annual operational costs ranging from €8-15 million.

The report says the Dublin region is again approaching the stage where new long-term, secure and sustainable supplies of water are critical to its development and to the performance of the State.

“It has to be done; there is no other way,” said Fine Gael councillor Naoise Ó Muirí, who chairs the environment and engineering SPC.

The cost of operating desalination plants was too high, while international experience showed it was very difficult to reduce leakage below 20 per cent, he added.

There are currently four main water treatment plants in the greater Dublin region, which includes Kildare, north Wicklow and parts of Co Meath in addition to the capital. Their maximum output is between 540 and 550 million litres per day, while under normal circumstances demand is between 530 and 540 million litres per day.

The lack of space capacity in the Dublin system contrasts with Paris, where three treatment plants operate at just 60 per cent capacity.

The report says the fragility of the situation was starkly illustrated when increased leakages caused by last January’s cold snap led to restrictions in supply.

Leakage from the system has been reduced from 42 per cent in 1996 to 28 per cent in 2002, but the report says that the maximum supply levels will be reached in the 2020s despite further efforts to reduce leakage.

The report also points out that customer leakage losses average 65 litres per property per day, broadly comparable to the UK. It says this figure could be halved following the introduction of water metering.

“If a new source is not provided, the consequences would be supply restrictions of increasing frequency with impacts on social and economic interests combined with constraints on new development including employment generation in the region,” it warns.

A number of multinationals with plants in the region, such as Diageo, Intel and Wyeth, have expressed concern about the security and/or quality of water supplies, it is understood.

The report considered 10 different supply options, seven of them with the Shannon as the source, as well as a number of sites for desalination.

The preferred option, which involves taking the water from a point north of Lough Derg and piping it to a reservoir at a cutaway bog at Garryhinch, close to Portarlington, Co Laois, where it would be treated and distributed, involved the minimum cost, according to the consultants.

The Shannon proposal has met strong opposition from communities in the region, and local and national politicians.

IrishTimes

Dublin City Council seeks to pump water daily from Shannon to Dublin

Colin Broderick — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 08:35:50 +0000

I’m not entirely convinced of the merits of doing this, but there is one thing for certain the EIS attached to this application will be one mammoth document. Surely fixing all the leaky old pipes in the city could buy some more time so that a solution closer to the city could be formulated. We shall have to wait and see.

DUBLIN CITY Council is to seek approval next week for a plan to pump 350 million litres of water per day from the river Shannon to serve the capital’s drinking water needs for the next 70 years.

Councillors will be asked by the city manager to endorse the scheme, – which will cost about €500 million – and are expected to do so, before seeking Government approval and permission from An Bord Pleanála. However, it does not require the permission of any local authority in the Shannon region.

The proposal was one of several options put forward in a 2006 report commissioned by the council from consultant engineers RPS to meet the Dublin region’s ever-growing demands for water.

The Dublin region, which encompasses parts of Kildare and Wicklow, uses about 540 million litres a day, but is only able to produce 518 million litres.

The council is working to increase the capacity of its own water facilities, but says it needs the new source if it is to meet rising demands.

Dublin city manager John Tierney said yesterday the new water source would not only serve household water needs, but would be vital to attracting businesses to the region.

The Shannon proposal has met strong opposition from communities in the region, and local and national politicians – including Westmeath-based Fianna Fáil TD, Mary O’Rourke, who in 2007 described the proposal as a “rape of our water”.

The Shannon Protection Alliance group, which includes boating enthusiasts, anglers and farmers, was also established to oppose the scheme.

Several proposals for taking water from the Shannon for Dublin have been considered, but the one expected to be put to city councillors involves piping water from one of the Shannon lakes to a disused Bord na Móna bog in the midlands, where it would be stored in the form of an artificial lake, from where water would be taken by pipe to Dublin.

Mr Tierney said the Shannon was a national resource. “We see this as a national project. If water is brought from the Shannon to Dublin it will provide for economic growth. Dublin is crucially important as the economic driver of the country.”

The abstraction of 350 million litres of water daily from the Shannon would have no detrimental effects on the river or on water supplies for counties surrounding the Shannon, Mr Tierney added.

“The 350 million litres represents a maximum of just 3 per cent of the water flowing out of the Shannon water sources every day,” he said.

Due to the scale of the project, it is likely to be 2020 before it would be completed. The capacity of the city’s largest reservoir at Ballymore Eustace is due to increase from 275 million litres to 318 million by the end of this year. A project is also under way to increase the capacity of the Leixlip reservoir.

IrishTimes

Dublin Port expansion plan refused

Colin Broderick — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 13:01:36 +0000

An Bord Pleanála has today refused the Dublin Port Company permission to implement an expansion plan for the port.

The company had applied to develop additional facilities with access to deepwater berths at the north eastern part of Dublin Port, off Alexandra Road through infilling some 95 acres.

The controversial plans had attracted more than 100 objections, including one from Dublin City Council calling them “premature”.

Explaining the decision, An Bord Pleanála said the proposed development is partly within the South Dublin Bay and River Tolka Estuary proposed Special Protection Area (pSPA) designated under the Birds Directive.

Refusing the proposal on four grounds, the planning authority said it was not satisfied the proposed development would not adversely affect the integrity of the South Dublin Bay and River Tolka Estuary proposed special protection area and “was not satisfied it would not adversely affect the natural heritage of Dublin Bay, contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area”.

Welcoming the decision, Dublin Bay Watch chairman Cllr Gerry Breen said: “Hopefully this decision will see the end of the 40 year old folly of the Port Company of attempting to infill the bay. Now we can turn to shape a vision for the bay which accords with the hopes and ambitions of the people of Dublin.”

Labour Dublin North Central Cllr Aodhán Ó Ríordáin also welcomed the decision to reject the application to infill and develop over 95 acres of the inner bay of Dublin.

“I am delighted that An Bord Pleanála have made this decision and finally put to bed the decades old controversy over the proposed infill of Dublin Bay. Myself and my Labour colleagues Bronwen Maher and Tommy Broughan have fought long and hard against the Port Company’s proposals over many years.”

However, the board did not accept the Inspector’s recommendation to refuse permission on the grounds of the unacceptable risk of flooding of the Clontarf area due to wave conditions. In its decision, the board said the Clontarf area is already at risk of flooding and that a flood relief scheme by the City Council has been approved.

An Bord Pleanála said the Dublin Port Company had planning fees of €155,456 in relation to the application.

In a brief statement, the Dublin Port Company said it was reviewing the decision before making any further comment.

Addressing an oral hearing into the proposals last year Dublin Port Company chief executive Enda Connellan said capacity was a crucial factor and the port needed deeper berths to accommodate bigger ships. He said the expansion would allow for an increase of up to 50 per cent in capacity for unitised containers which was crucial to the national economy.

IrishTimes

[IT] New Dublin city draft plan puts a halt to rezoning of land for housing

Colin Broderick — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:28:57 +0000

Don’t Forget to get your submissions in before the 12th March. Need a Planner try The Irish Planning Institute Planner Search

NO NEW lands will be rezoned for housing in Dublin city until after 2017, under the new draft city development plan which has been released for public consultation.

Assistant city manager Michael Stubbs said there was already sufficient residentially zoned land to meet demand and that some land which had been zoned residential under the last development plan would be rezoned for other uses.

Undeveloped land which had been zoned solely for housing is now being considered for a newly created zoning “Z10A”. This zoning would be similar to the existing Z10 zoning which allows for mixed use development of residential, commercial and retail in urban centres, but would have lower densities.

The new zoning would be suitable for suburban land previously zoned only for housing, Mr Stubbs said.

“Introducing this new outer suburban zoning will strengthen the development of communities by allowing a variety of uses instead of mono use.”

Live-work units and units for small start-up companies would be possible under the zoning, Mr Stubbs said.

While the main strategy of the last development plan was to expand the inner city towards Heuston Station and the docklands, the new plan focuses on consolidating and improving the city and inner-suburban centres such as Ballymun, Finglas, Rathmines and Phibsborough.

Efforts are to be made to improve the appearance of the city quays, eliminate derelict buildings in the city centre and make the city more pedestrian friendly.

However, the redevelopment or improvement aspirations for many areas will require the return of investment from private developers. The plan acknowledges that schemes will be advanced as “priorities and resources permit”.

The draft plan, which proposes standards for building heights and environmental principles, as well as zonings, is open for public consultation until March 12th. It can be viewed and submissions can be made at www.dublincitydevelopmentplan.ie. Video submissions can be made at the council’s Wood Quay Venue.

IrishTimes