Real estate investor Ardstone has been granted planning for a €356 million apartment scheme on former Jesuit lands at the corner of Sandford Road and Miltown Road in Dublin 6.

An Coimisiún Pleanála has upheld Dublin City Council’s earlier decision to grant planning for the amended 562-unit development in the face of objections from local residents.

This is Ardstone’s third planning application for the site. The previous two have been subject to High Court judicial reviews. Residents could still seek a third judicial review to block the current permission.

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“The latest application follows a substantial redesign of the proposals by Ardstone in response to concerns raised in legal challenges to the two previous permissions for the site,” Ardstone said.

The revised scheme, it said, reduces the number of homes by 74, lowers the maximum height from 10 to eight storeys, and retains a greater proportion of the western boundary tree line.

Ardstone bought the site from the Jesuit Order in 2019 for €69 million.

In 2021 it applied directly to An Bord Pleanála – under the former Strategic Housing Development (SHD) system – for permission to build 667 homes, mainly build-to-rent apartments, and was granted planning.

But the permission became the subject of High Court judicial review proceedings initiated by local residents’ groups, who took issue with the scale of the project and its potential impact on the area.

While this legal dispute was ongoing, Ardstone, in 2023, came up with a modified plan for the site involving 636 homes – 31 fewer homes than the first plan.

It applied for planning under the Large-scale Residential Development system (the successor to the SHD) and was in September that year granted planning by DCC.

This planning permission, like its predecessor, became the subject of judicial review proceedings.

Ardstone in January this year renewed its bid to secure planning for the site with a new scheme involving 562 housing units, 105 fewer than the initial 667 proposed.

The revised plan reduced the height across the scheme. This

DCC granted planning for this scheme in April, a decision that has now been upheld by An Coimisiún Pleanála.

“We are very pleased with this decision,” Mark Forrest, senior director at Ardstone, said.

“We listened carefully to the concerns raised following the earlier permissions and made substantial changes to the scheme in response, including reducing its overall scale and height and providing greater separation from neighbouring homes,” he said.

“We believe the result is a stronger scheme which responds appropriately to its setting while still delivering 562 much-needed new homes, alongside a creche and cafe/restaurant, in an established part of Dublin,” he said.

“We hope that this amended scheme can now progress so that we can move towards getting on site and delivering these homes,” Forrest said.