Eight towers up to 20 storeys high will be permitted in Dublin’s docklands under draft plans released by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority.
The master plan, which covers development and infrastructure works in the Irish capital’s docklands area to 2013, was released for public consultation today by the planning authority.
Chief executive Paul Maloney said new planning applications for tall buildings would be considered only near public transport interchanges or locations “very well served by public transport infrastructure”.
This is likely to encompass a wider area after the extension of the LUAS light rail line from Connolly Station eastwards to the Point Village on East Wall Road and to the Poolbeg Peninsula on the south side of the river.
Plans for a 35-storey hotel by Treasury Holdings alongside the National Conference Centre on North Wall Quay and a 36-storey tower on Britain Quay by Ballymore Properties and rock band U2 are currently in front of planners.
It also proposes extending current section 25 provisions to cover the Grand Canal Dock, North Lotts, Custom House Docks areas on the north side of the River Liffey and the Poolbeg area on the south side of the river.
Section 25 (part of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority Act 1997) allows developers’ plans certified by the authority to bypass the normal planning processes and be called in by the Minister for the Environment.
Maloney said the extension of the fast-tracking provision would allow the authority to achieve ‘strategic development objectives’.
The new plan replaces the authority’s last five-year plan which started in 2003 covering development by public and private sectors in Dublin’s docklands.
It also proposes that the current requirement for 20% of all new residential development to be affordable homes to be maintained.
