The Missing Link???.......Treasury Holdings proposed Re-Development of Stillorgan

http://www.pleanala.ie/REP/214/R214710.DOC

PLANNING APPLICATION

Planning Authority: Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council

Planning Authority Reg. No: D05A/0215

Applicant: Myrmidon Ltd.

Application Type: Permission

Planning Authority Decision: Grant, subject to 24 conditions

DATE OF SITE INSPECTION: 17th May 2005.


Excerpts from An Bord Pleanala Planning Application…Page 23 0f 73

Ø It is noted that the developer of the Shopping Centre, Treasury Holdings, offered to fund the reasonable costs of a review of their traffic documentation. However, the appellants responded to the effect that this would not result in any additional benefit, but that the commissioning of traffic studies or analysis in addition to the integrated traffic management plan, in the context of the Local Area Plan, would be welcomed by them. (Copies of the exchange of correspondence is appended).



Ø In addition to this, the appellants note the proposal for the Monkstown Ring Road, the EIS of which predicts a traffic flow of some 25,000 cars and 810 HGV’s, and state that this will “clearly have a significant impact on traffic volumes in Stillorgan”. It is noted that this has not been referred to, or considered at all, in the traffic surveys and data submitted as part of the Shopping Centre application.

Page 27

The Plan indicates a Cycle Priority and also a Quality Bus/Bus Priority objective for the Lower Kilmacud Road, running to the junction with the N11 in each case (the bus priority objective continues eastwards beyond the N11 along Stillorgan Park)......................

Page 35

Within the Plan’s retail hierarchy, Stillorgan is classified as a District Centre (the second tier in the hierarchy, after Major Town Centre and before ‘Neighbourhood/Local Centre’). The two Major Town Centres are Dun Laoghaire and Dundrum, with Cherrywood-Rathmichael as a new emerging urban centre, while the other District Centres are Blackrock, Nutgrove, Dalkey and Cornelscourt. The Plan states:-

“Retail developments should relate to this hierarchy, they should locate within designated centres.... and be of a scale compatible with the function of the centre, and the market that it serves. In order to ensure the continued vibrancy of Major Town Centres, Cherrywood-Rathmichael and District Centres, the provision of leisure, entertainment and cultural uses will be encouraged. In large-scale proposals, the provision, and retention or replacement of such uses may be required.”...............................

Page 47

..............................In particular, I find the consultants’ unwillingness to accept that the 2002 figures were unreliable because the surveys were carried out at a time when all of the local secondary schools, and many of the local private primary/preparatory schools were closed, and also during the weeks of the 2002 World Cup, which had the undoubted effect of markedly suppressing traffic volumes. The figures now presented show that the reduction in traffic levels through the junctions between 1999 and 2002 was not representative, and that the levels in 2004 were the same, or higher, than those in 1999......................................

Given that it is Government policy that no significant additional road capacity is to be provided in the Greater Dublin Area inside the C ring, and that modal shift to public transport has to be accelerated and promoted in lieu of the provision of further road capacity for private cars, it is unlikely that the increased traffic levels generated by this, and other developments in this District Centre, can readily be accommodated within the road network..............................

...............This begs the question whether it is appropriate to prevent redevelopment of brownfield sites, such as this, in commercial cores, only on the basis that there is insufficient road capacity to take the traffic generated by it.................

There must come a time when the convenience of the motorist, and perhaps outmoded desires for engineering-based solutions that seek to maintain “free flowing” traffic conditions, have to be subordinated to the needs of sustainable development, and that the emphasis must be placed on public transport, and other sustainable modes of transit, rather than private motor car transportation.

In essence, traffic delays, of themselves, can no longer be the test against which the acceptability or otherwise of developments in highly urbanised built-up commercial areas should be judged................

........................................The developer shall pay to the planning authority a financial contribution of €3,646,296.70 (three million, six hundred and forty-six thousand, two hundred and ninety-six euro and seventy cents) in respect of public infrastructure and facilities benefiting development in the area