17-storey apartment complex in Cork City fast tracked by ABP despite local planners concerns
A 17-storey apartment complex in Cork city has been approved by An Bord Pleanála despite recommendations from planners at Cork City Council that it be refused, it has emerged.
The Railway Gardens development on the city's South Link was approved under the fast tracked Strategic Housing Development scheme earlier this week despite local planners concerns about parking, height and place-making.
The development includes 118 build-to-rent apartments on a 0.8-acre site located just 200m from the Elysian tower. At 58.5m tall, it will be 10m shorter than the Elysian.
City planners raised concerns on several grounds. These included questions regarding the building's height and its location in an area zoned for "city centre commercial" activities.
In its report to An Bord Pleanála, planners said:
"The planning authority is of the opinion that the proposed strategic housing development would not be consistent with the relevant objectives of the Cork City Development Plan 2015-2021, and Urban Development and Building Heights Guidelines for Planning Authorities (2009) and recommends that planning permission be refused."
Concerns about the location of the building were raised. The site is in an area zoned as the city centre commercial core which "supports the retention and expansion of a wide range of commercial, cultural, leisure and residential uses".
It said, in this context, "that the proposed development fails to provide sufficient active ground floor uses".
"Furthermore, the proposal fails to establish good placemaking and gives rise to poor connectivity for all users by reason of its design, scale, form and layout and would result in a substandard form of development," planners added.
Planners also raised concern regarding height.
"By reason of its massing, height and scale, [the proposed building] has not satisfactorily demonstrated compliance with" criteria set out in the Ministerial Guidelines for tall buildings, they said.
During consultation with the developers, An Bord Pleanála had recommended an increase from 13 to 17 storeys as the initial plan was "stocky and out of proportion", they said.
The transportation division of Cork City Council's roads and transport directorate recommended that the development "should not proceed" as submitted.
"Of particular concern is the proposed 14.9m cantilever walkway stretching from the proposed development to the south-east parapet of Hibernian Road Bridge which will not connect to the bridge," it said.
"There are objections to the low level of car parking proposed and the loss of existing public on-street carparking."
It adds that the development is flanked by a "narrow network of surrounding streets" and that there is a "lack of direct and easy access to immediate public transport".
Developers described the development as "unashamedly pedestrian-focused" in the application. They included 239 bicycle spaces and just five car parking spaces: three disabled spaces and two for service vehicles.
One local resident from Rockboro Road who was part of a group of local residents who opposed the scale and density of the original development said residents were hugely disappointed to see ABP's decision and the fact that none of the residents concerns around density and height were addressed.
"It is not overstating the issue to say the residents are in shock at this decision and while everyone is acutely aware of the need for housing in the city surely a development of this scale and density on such a small site smacks of bad planning.
"We would ask that the city's elected representatives, locally and nationally, consider the decisions being made under the fast tracked Strategic Housing Development scheme and what this decision, in particular, says about local democracy and local accountability."
