News just in ……. Ken Mahon is to apply for a Judicial Review in relation to An Bord Pleanala’s decision regarding Bishopscourt Green.
An Bord Pleanála’s decision is final and can only be challenged by judicial review in the High Court.
This process will judge whether the Board followed due process in reaching its decision and will not include an examination of the planning merits.
More to follow.
Planning an Development Acts 2000 to 2007
Cork City
Planning Register Reference Number 08/33107
An Bord Pleanála Reference Number PL28.230339
Appeal by Ken Mahon, care of Spatial Planning Solutions of Studio 4, Crawford Business Park, Proby’s Quay, Cork against the decision made on the 8th day of July, 2008 by Cork City Council to refuse permission.
Proposed Development:
Construction of 44 number apartments in two number buildings, 22 apartments to each building, varying in height from two to three storey with underground car park and ancillary areas to service same, including gardens, roof gardens, private and public open space, boundary treatments and all other associated site works with connection to all main services all at Bishopscourt Drive, on pary of the lands at Number 1 Park Gate Villas, Bishopstown, Cork.
DECISION
REFUSE permission for the above proposed development based on the reasons and considerations set out below.
MATTERS CONSIDERED
In making its decision, the Board has regard to those matters to which, by virtue of the Planning and Development Acts and Regulations made thereunder, it was required to have regard. Such matters include any submissions and observations received by it in accordance with statutory provisions.
REASONS and CONSIDERATIONS
The Board noted, that from the time of construction of the surrounding houses, in 1966, in accordance with the terms of the original permission (granted under planning authority register reference number 228/65) the site of the proposed development has been continuously used and maintained as a public recreation/amenity space by the residents of this housing estate. Furthermore, the Board noted that the proposed apartment development wold result in the loss of the greater part of this landscaped open area which constitutes an essential community facility for the residents of the nearby dwellings and also, which contributes positively to the visual character of the area. Accordingly, the Board considered that the proposed development would seriously injure the amenities of properties in the vicinity and the visual amenities of the area and would, thereby, materially contavene Policy NHR 11 of the current Development Plan for the area, as amended. The propsed development would, therefore, be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.
Tom O’Connor
Member of An Bord Pleanála duly authorised to authenticate the seal of the Board.
Dated this 18th day of December 2008.
The decision of an Bord Pleanála has been deferred until the ninth of January two thousand and nine. This is because of the volume of applications An Bord Pleanála has to deal with.
The appeal by Ken Mahon is now on the Cork City planning site.
The appeal is also listed on the An Bord Pleanála website.
In this National Geographic article, the virtues and importance of green spaces in our environment is again emphasised.
The world needs parks. Whether they’re slivers of green in a crowded city or 20,000 square miles (52,000 square kilometers) of designated wilderness, parks nourish the human spirit, help sustain the planet, and reflect the ideals of the societies that protect them. But for some of these preserves, the future is uncertain.
Nothing more true could be said about Bishopscourt Green. Thanks to Ken Mahon’s ambition to destroy this open green space by building forty four apartments, its future is uncertain. We are waiting to see whether he will appeal to An Bord Pleanala.
We hope he might take a leaf out of the book of Paris. A city even the most hardened property developer must admire.
Could this be why the citizens of Paris work so hard to reinvent dead urban space and neglected squares of hardscape as places of vibrancy and green? Consider Parc des Buttes-Chaumont in the city’s crowded 19th arrondissement. Once this patch of land held an old gallows, then a gypsum quarry, then the city dump. Now the big bucolic park of grassy slopes and grottoes is alive with bloom and birdsong and a healthy jumble of people who spill onto its hilly lawns: kickboxers, musicians, university students perusing their notes or memorizing lines for a play, lovers rolling over one another like tumblers, and old men who have settled themselves on the grass to rest.
Parisians in fact will seize just about any spot in their city for park or garden: tiny balcony, abandoned auto plant, bankrupt parking garage, derelict railway, even the giant curved facade of a new museum. They will sacrifice broad boulevards for the sake of bike paths with leafy canopies. They will argue for community gardens over apartments or media centers. They will relinquish a busy city expressway along the Seine for a temporary beach park, and will see in every shabby lot a prospective cathedral of green.
One can only imagine how horrified the Parisians would be at the thought of a developer seeking to build a park on an open space laid out in 1965. The Parisian sentiments should be remembered on this, the most French of days. Our parks and open green spaces must be protected.
The last word goes to the Parisian mayor, Bertrand Delanoë:
A modern city needs areas free from density, noise, and the frenzied urban pace. We must re-create the kinds of spaces that lend themselves to talking, walking, discovering, relaxing.
Last year, we wrote a post informing you how to keep an eye on applications made to an Bord Pleanala. Here it is again.
An Bord Pleanala have made use of RSS technology to show planning appeals as they are lodged.
The RSS feed for Cork City Council will show if and when Ken Mahon appeals the decision by Cork City Council to refuse the outline planning application for 1 Park Gate Villas and Bishopscourt Green. If you make use of RSS feeds, you may wish to add this link to your subscriptions
An Bord Pleanala also provide a page with FAQs about the appeals process.
COMHAIRLE CATHRACH CHORCAI - CORK CITY COUNCIL
PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT ACT, 2000
NOTIFICATION OF DECISION TO REFUSE TO GRANT
OUTLINE PERMISSION
UNDER SECTION 34 OF THE ACT OF 2000
Mr. Ken Mahon Reg. No. T.P. 08/33107
C/O CMG Architects Ltd.,
The Atrium,
Blackpool Retail Park,
Black Pool,
Cork
Application Received: 14/05/08
In pursuance of the powers conferred upon them by the above mentioned Act, the Cork City Council have by order dated 8th July 2008 decided to REFUSE to grant OUTLINE PERMISSION for the development of land namely:-
Outline Permission to (a) demolish the existing derelict dwelling, (b) to construct 44 no. apartments in two no. buildings, 22 apartments to each building, varying in height from two to three storey with underground car park and ancillary areas to service same, including gardens, roof gardens, private and public open space, boundary treatments and all other associated site works with connection to all main services all at Bishopscourt Drive on part of the lands at No. 1 Park Gate Villas, at Bishopstown, Cork
for the reasons set out in the Schedule hereto.
Signed on behalf of the Cork city Council.
K. Terry Director,
Planning & Development & City Engineer.
SCHEDULE
Having regard to the location of the proposed development within an area designated as open space in a previous planning permission granted under reference C32428 (Cork City Council reference) / 228/65 (Cork City Council reference), and the provisions of Policy NHR 11 of the Cork City Development Plan which states that there will be a presumption against the development of public open spaces, it is considered that the proposed development would contravene Policy NHR 11 of the Development Plan and would seriously injure the amenities of the area and of property in the vicinity. The proposed development would, therefore, be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.
Ken Mahon’s development for 44 apartments in two blocks ranging in height from two to three storeys, complete with underground car park has been refused permission by Cork City Council.
Mr. Mahon has already made it known to the Irish Examiner that he plans to appeal this decision to An Bord Pleanala. For the moment at least, the Green is safe from being torn up for development and will remain an amenity for the residents of Bishopscourt, (who have paid for its maintenance for the last forty years) as per its initial purpose when the estate was laid out.
A huge thank you to all our supporters, the one hundred and sixty two objectors and our councillors who have voiced their opposition to this development.
In cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, Paris, more Paris, yet more Paris the urge at the moment is to create more green space.
Previously, we blogged about Jane Power’s article on the importance of green spaces in our environment. Bishopscourt Green is more important now that it ever was. The Grounds surrounding the main building of CUH, which once included an expanse of green space and hillocks for children to run up and down on, have been given over to much needed hospital expansion and development. The former esso station next to CUH will also be developed into a high rise medical centre. Bishopscourt Green will be the only remaning green space on a main artery of the city. Bishopstown Road.
Green spaces are needed. This fact was emphasised in a study in London in 2001 which included in its list of greatest threats to open green spaces the words
pressure for development
One reason it listed for the loss of green space is
the purposeful neglect of green space in order to increase the chance of its development…… We believe that the Planning Inspectorate in its consideration of planning applications should identify the intentional neglect of green space and presume against granting development in such circumstances.
Thankfully, Bishopscourt Green has been maintained financially and physically by the residents of Bishopscourt for forty years and therefore, the Green is not in any way neglected. However, were Ken Mahon to prevent the Bishopscourt Residents from accessing and maintaing the Green, as they have done, he could then choose to purposefully neglect it. In that scenario, one could make an assumption that the intention behind purposeful neglect was in order to have a more favourable outcome in a planning application.
As the document goes on to mention
parks did not come into existence by chance, or simply survive as accidentally undeveloped ground. They were deliberately created.
Bishopscourt Green was deliberately created. Its trees are needed. Its continuing existence as a green space is needed. The importance of this fact cannot be over emphasised. Thankfully, Cork City Council agrees that Green spaces are important and should be preserved. Especially intended green spaces laid out in initial planning applications.
John McCarthy choose to sell Bishopscourt Green with the house at 1 Park Gate Villas for material gain. Ken Mahon seeks to develop the Green for material gain. There is no reason for any proposed development other than material gain. These two men have placed a threat over our green. We will fight Ken Mahon’s quest for material gain all the way.
As of today, there were one hundred and thrity four (134) one hundred and sixty one (161) objections to Ken Mahon’s application for outline permission to build 44 apartments in two buildings ranging in height from two to three storeys on Bishopscourt Green.
A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to object to his application.
We will now wait with fingers crossed that this application will be turned down. The decision is due on the 8th of July 2008.
