I Love St. Anne's - Say No to Building in St. Anne's!

The I Love St Anne’s group have sent the following piece which they posted on their Facebook page today. This is particularly helpful for those who don’t know the background. 

It should also be noted that if you objected to the planning when it was first lodged (and subsequently declared invalid) and didn’t reclaim your €20, you can email Alise Devlin at DCC (alise.devlin@dublincity.ie), include your objection and note of your original receipt number and she will process this for you.

The final date for objections is this Thursday 21st January at 4.30pm. Although we encourage everyone to submit an objection, there is also an opportunity to express your opinion via the online petition (click here) which will also be submitted to Dublin City Council as one objection. 

The I Love St. Anne’s group were interviewed by DublinCity FM last week, where they explained the history of St. Anne’s Park and it’s historical significance to this part of the city. You can listen to the full podcast here. 

Finally, please see the following piece, and on behalf of the residents of Clontarf, we would like to thank the group for their continuous hard work.

I Love St. Anne’s - Say No to Building in St. Anne’s!

Last day for objecting to the proposed development on St. Paul's pitches is this Thursday January 21st at 4.30pm. 

For those who do not know the background, here's a quick overview - this land (outlined in red in the photo above) belonged to Dublin City Council until the 1950's when it was acquired, for a nominal sum by the Vincentian Fathers who had just established St. Paul's college at Sybil Hill and needed playing fields for their new school. 

The land remained open to the park until about a decade ago, when the Vincentians fenced it off from the rest of the park citing insurance concerns. 

The Vincentians sold the land to Arklow property developers Crekav in April 2015. Crekav is backed by M&G a UK based global investment firm. Crekav propose to build 381 residential units on this land. The land is zoned Z15 - educational/institutional use with the possibility of residential development 'open for consideration'. 

The land is NOT zoned Z1 - the regular zoning for residential development. The St. Paul's pitches are heavily used by the boys of St. Paul's college and local sporting organisations. It forms part of the historic one mile avenue of Scotts Pine and Holm Oak that run from the Sybil Hill gates to the site of the old Guinness mansion near the playground. 

The proposed housing development will overlook the park at the main avenue, the millennium arboretum and All Saints Road - which will be the site of 281 apartments in 5 storey blocks. The St. Paul's pitches are in the heart of St. Anne's, these houses/apartments will be in the heart of St. Anne's. We do not believe that any residential development should be considered in the heart of a public park. 

If you want to oppose this development and you want your voice heard, you must make a personal objection to Dublin City Council. You can object by letter - at this stage you would need to hand deliver your letter - or you can object online, instructions below.

It is really important that your objection is based on planning laws. If like most of us you're not a expert on planning law, we have posted a list of suggested grounds for objecting on the I Love St. Anne's Facebook page.  If you're having trouble locating that, send us a personal message on Facebook and we will e mail it to you along with instructions for online and by hand objections. 

Also, please be aware that Dublin City Council charge €20 per objection. This is the second time that this planning application has been lodged - the first time it was rejected on a technicality. On that occasion there were 244 individual objections which Dublin City Council acknowledged was a huge number, we would really like to beat that figure this time. 

Many thanks to architect Patrick Stanley for providing the online objecting instructions below;

OBJECT TO DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL ONLINE

1. You can make an online objection (with €20 online card payment) here:http://www.dublincity.ie/swift…/apas/run/wchintlogin.display

2. Follow this link and sign up to Dublin City Council using your contact details,

3. Then log in.

4. Then click on "Search for a planning application / Make an observation"

5. Then, in the 3rd field down, "Planning Reference:" enter: "4185/15"

6. This will bring you to the St Paul's Playing Fields planning application description that starts "The development will consist of:

           1) the demolition of 3 no. existing school (and [...etc]" Click on the blue reference number "4185/15" on the left.

7. This brings you into the planning application details.

8. There is a wide rectangle in the middle of the page that seems to be a missing logo, click on this and it brings you to the online observation page where you can "Make A Comment About Planning Application 4185/15"

9. Your personal details are already filled out, all you need to do is type or copy and paste your objection text into the "Submission Text Summary*:"

10. Then press "Submit"
11. You are then presented with the card payment options page. Pay your €20 and there you go,

12. Dublin City Council will then post you a receipt which you should keep safely in case you want to make an appeal further down the line