The Department of Education has emerged as an objector to plans for more than 1,000 new homes at a site at Baldoyle in north Dublin.
Earlier this year, Lismore Homes Ltd lodged a €468 million fast-track planning application for a 1,007-unit Strategic Housing Development (SHD) scheme for a site at Baldoyle in Dublin 13.
The proposal is made up of 58 studio units; 247 one-bedroom units; 94 two-bedroom, three-person units; 563 two-bedroom, four-person units, and 45 three-bedroom units.
The developers are proposing to sell 200 units to Fingal County Council for social housing for an estimated €93 million and have put an indicative average price tag of €484,893 on each dwelling.
However, an objection lodged by the Department of Education against the scheme requests that approval “is not given to this Strategic Housing Development (SHD) scheme because it is going to further compound the projected pressure in meeting school place requirements in the area unless a suitable school site is identified”.
School places
The department notes that in terms of potential requirements for school places, it was relevant that the proposed development site adjoins two other large permitted SHDs, a scheme for 882 units and another for 1,221 residential units.
The department stated that it submitted to An Bord Pleanála in both of these SHD applications that permission not be granted until a suitable site is identified to meet the post-primary school needs of existing and future residents of the area.
“The department has been trying for some time now, without any success, to identify a site,” it added.
A school demand assessment lodged on behalf of the developers with the application states that “our assessment concludes that this proposal won’t generate a need for an additional school or schools in the area over and above those under construction and planned for the area”.
However, the Department of Education claims that the applicant’s school demand assessment report was “too crude an instrument to reliably gauge school place requirements” for the area.
A decision is due on the scheme in July.
