Dublin City Council reject plans for the city’s tallest ever building

Jul 3, 2017

When you travel to places like New York or Dubai, you realise how small (and short) Dublin City is.

And even though the city has changed drastically over the years, there's still no building taller than 70 metres.

Celtic Tiger developer Johnny Ronan tried to change that by proposing to build Dublin's tallest skyscraper on the South Quays, however, his bid has been rejected.

The Irish businessman wanted to build a 22-storey hotel and office block just off Tara Street, but there were many people against the plans.

And it looks like Dublin City Council has listened to the opponents, as they believe the hotel would have an ill-effect on the character of the area.

The Council claim that the 88-metre building would have a "significant and detrimental visual impact" on the city.

Dublin City Council said in a statement: "The proposal would be reason of visual intrusion, have a significant and detrimental visual impact on a number of important views and vistas in the city including from College Green and the Trinity College Campus."

They also noted that the "scale, bulk and height" would take away from “one of the city’s most important architectural set pieces,” The Custom House.

Johnny has one month to appeal the decision, but we honestly can't see it going anywhere at the moment.

23,000 Dublin homes still due to be built, even with planning permission

Jun 26, 2017

by Amber Saunders

Around 23,700 homes in the capital still have to be built, despite them all having planning permission.

The Department of Housing recently released figures showing that only one third of houses have been completed in recent years.

36,956 homes were approved with planning permission, with 13,000 of those been granted in the last 30 months.

Of those, only 21 per cent have actually been built, while 5,000 are still under construction.

A whopping 64 per cent of houses still need to begin construction, bringing the number to nearly 24,000.

In the Dublin City Council area, no work has been started on 77 per cent of the homes, while in Fingal and South Dublin, nothing has begun on two thirds of the homes.

In Dun Laoghaire Rathdown 6,659 were granted permission and 46 per cent of works have begun.

According to 98fm, around 35,000 houses and apartments are needed every year to meet the demand and dampen house prices and rental costs.

Andrew’s Lane Theatre could turn into a ‘tech-savvy, pod-like’ hotel

Jun 20, 2017

by Amber Saunders

Planning permission has been granted for a 155-bedroom hotel on the site of Andrew Lane's Theatre on Dame Street.

The application was made by Appalachian Property Holdings and the total investment into the land will be about €21m.

The bedrooms in the hotel will be 'pod-like', which have become popular in places like New York and Japan.

There will also be a reception area and coffee dock on the ground floor of the hotel.

Appalachian Property Holdings (which is owned by the same people as KeyWaste) hope to open the hotel by spring 2019.

“Its primary target audience comprises of well-informed, contemporary and tech-savvy business and leisure individuals who want style, location and value for money,” the planning permission document states.

“This is reflected throughout the ‘limited service’ hotel with sophisticated technology assisting the guests from self-service check-in to compact sophisticated bedrooms, which provide guests with the ability to customise their own environment," the document added.

‘Should close the stores’: Starbucks is causing a LOT of grief in Cork

Mar 7, 2016

by Amber Saunders

Starbucks, the multinational coffee retailer is causing a lot of controversy in Cork city at the moment.

The coffee shop recently opened three new stores across Cork on St Patrick's Street, Princess Street and Emmet Place.

They were all opened in commercial units which were previously retail shops, and the planning authority has since said that the company should have applied for planning permission to change the use of the stores before it opened.

The decision comes five months after a planning dispute between Cork County Council and Starbucks was referred to An Bord Pleanála.

The County Council claimed that Starbucks should have changed the use of premises from a retail premises, while the coffee shop argued that most people take away their drinks, and thus the operation in nature is retail.

However, An Bord Pleanála has taken the council's side, and said that in all three cases “the scale, nature and layout of the coffee shop is more akin to a restaurant use which is expressly excluded from the definition of ‘shop’.”

Sorry, Starbucks. You lost out on this one.

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