High-rise building near Limerick park 'too high'

AN EIGHT-storey residential building planned for a Limerick city site derelict for three decades is “an opportunistic breaking of a well-established street line”, according to An Taisce.

The National Trust for Ireland has appealed Limerick City and County Council’s decision to grant planning, to An Bord Pleanala.

The applicant - Pairc Na Daoine Limited- applied for planning for the 21-unit apartment complex overlooking the People’s Park in May.

Conditional permission for the development at 1-4 James Street and 6 and 7 Upper Mallow Street was granted by the council in July.

It includes the construction of an eight-storey building encompassing three studio apartments, three two-bed apartments and 15 one-bed apartments.

An Taisce has appealed the council’s decision to An Bord Pleanala on a number of grounds. A detailed submission, seen by the Limerick Leader / Limerick Live, stresses that the proposal, at a time of severe housing shortage “is strongly welcomed, in principle”.

Plans for six-storey apartment block beside landmark Limerick hotel

An Taisce submits that should the proposal proceed in its present form it will constitute “an opportunistic breaking of a well-established street line”.

It lists out the number of storeys in proximity to the proposed development, which range from two to five storeys.

A second grounds for appeal is that “it will sunder the relationship of this street with the People’s Park which occupies the opposite side of the street”.

“A public park such as this, bounded by terraces of sympathetically well-scaled, residential, commercial, and social buildings, is a familiar element in contemporary urban townscapes, something that the insertion of a bleakly modelled, stark, single-tower block, almost twice the height of its neighbours, will break that harmony forever,” submits An Taisce.

They also raise other concerns including adversely affecting the sunlight to a number of properties and that the prime front-facing facade on to Mallow Street is largely glass (between 80 and 90%).

“As Limerick city council planners will know, the residents of many other recently built city centre blocks are now struggling to live and work behind plate glass, south in facing windows, at a time of increasing weather extremes and without the mitigating effect of dual aspect or cross ventilation design.”