Dunne refused permission for Ballsbridge high rise
An Bord Pleanála has refused Sean Dunne’s application for permission to develop his controversial €1.5 billion Ballsbridge high rise development saying it would represent “gross overdevelopment” in the area. Mr Dunne paid €450 million for the Jurys and Berkeley Court hotels and an adjoining site in Ballsbridge in 2005. Mr Dunne had sought permission for residential, retail and office development on the seven-acre site of the former Jurys and Berkeley Court hotels. The city council earlier this year granted permission for the bulk of Mr Dunne’s development last March but refused permission for the 28,000sq m of offices proposed and a 37-storey 136-metre tower. Mr Dunne appealed to An Bord Pleanála. Rejecting the appeal this morning, An Bord Pleanála said: “It is considered that the proposed development, by reason of its scale, massing and height (notwithstanding the high quality of the architectural treatment of the individual buildings), would constitute gross overdevelopment and over-intensification of use of the site, would be highly obtrusive, would seriously injure the visual amenity of the area and would constitute an inappropriate design response to the existing context of the site, making a radical change in the urban form of the area, at odds with the established character of Ballsbridge.”
