By Mary O’Keefe

Cork City Council has refused a planning application to develop 44 residential units on a site at Bishopscourt Green.

A total of 161 submissions had been made to the local authority objecting to the proposed development while the lower Bishopscourt Residents Group, Communities for Sustainable Development (CSD) and a number of local politicians had been very vocal in outlining why they believed the development should not go ahead.

Yesterday, Mick Murphy, Spokesperson for CSD welcomed the news that the City Council had refused the application. “I’m delighted that the city planners refused this application. To be honest CSD always thought it would be refused because it was such an outrageous application. I’m very pleased it did not get the go ahead.

Cork Fine Gael Senator Jerry Buttimer also welcomed the news. “I welcome the decision by the council to refuse planning and preserve the integrity of this site. I would appeal to the developer to abandon his plans for this site which is one of the few green spaces in this area,” he said.

Concluding Senator Buttimer added, “I’m sure this case will go onto An Bord Pleanala and I just hope that they see its a ludicrous proposal that will do nothing to benefit the local community.”

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.

by Eoin English of the Irish Examiner

A DEVELOPER’S controversial plan to build apartments on a suburban green have been shot down for the second time this year.

Planners in Cork City Council yesterday refused to grant outline planning permission to developer Ken Mahon for his 44-apartment and underground car park scheme on Bishopscourt Green in Bishopstown.

Residents in the estate, who have been fighting for almost a year to save the green from development, welcomed the decision.

But Mr Mahon confirmed last night he is planning to lodge an appeal with An Bord Pleanála.

Mr Mahon acquired the 1.6-acre site — which has been used as a public amenity since the estate was developed in the 1960s — as part of a house sale last year.

Title to the house, which is located on the edge of the site, included title to the green.

Despite the fact that the land was used by local residents as public open space, it remained in private ownership.

Mr Mahon insists that it is zoned residential in colour coded maps in the city development plan.

The developer said he sought access to all files relating to the planning history of the site before deciding to purchase the house and green last year.

He was reportedly told by city officials, at the time, that those files were missing.

In the absence of those files, he proceeded to buy the site and applied to build four houses.

But planners ruled in January that the proposed development site is within an area designated as open space in the original planning application for Bishopscourt estate in 1965.

Mr Mahon said he was shocked to learn the files, he was told had been missing, had been used to argue the council’s case.

The planners also cited the city development plan which states there will be a presumption against development of public open spaces.

In their ruling yesterday, they said the location of the proposed development is within an area designated as open space in a previous planning permission by both the city and county councils at the time of the original estate was built.

They also cited a policy within the Cork City Development Plan which states that there will be a presumption against development of public open spaces.

As a result, they said the proposed development would contravene that policy and would seriously damage the amenities of the area and of property in the vicinity.

There were over 160 objections from local residents to the plan. Mr Mahon said he is not surprised at the decision.

“I feel the council has acted unfairly towards me. Have they rezoned my land or haven’t they?” he asked. “Constitutionally, they cannot rezone privately-owned land.”

Mr Mahon said the council has clearly rezoned parcels of land nearby from residential to public open amenity. But he insists that such a process has not happened to the Bishopscourt Green site which he says is still listed as residential in the city development plan. Residents have vowed to fight the appeal.

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.