CRA Update | St Paul's Sports Facilities

The following is an update from the Clontarf Residents’ Association on the St Paul’s College planning application for alterations to their sports facilities

Residents will be aware that the CREKAV application under the new Strategic Housing Development (SHD) legislation for a 536-unit residential development on the playing fields to the rear of St Paul’s College is currently being considered by An Bord Pleanála. (Click here to see previous post)

At the same time, a separate application for two all-weather pitches and a sports hall was also being considered by Dublin City Council (Ref: 3777/17). DCC have refused this sports facilities application.  

The College lands are zoned Z15 i.e. institutional and community purposes. Residential development is open for consideration on Z15 lands but as part of meeting this condition, the developer must demonstrate that the existing community use can be accommodated in their overall proposal for the site. The sports facilities application was intended to provide replacement facilities for the school and community sports requirements, currently being met by the 14 acres of grass playing fields to the rear of the College.  While these sports facilities could not, in our view, have met the current needs of the community using the existing facilities, the developer was including them as part of the justification that the grass playing fields were surplus to requirements and therefore free for housing development. Therefore, while we are not opposed to St Paul’s College improving their sports facilities, the decision by DCC is good news in terms of the CREKAV application.