Stop the Union Café Planning Application!

The MMRA is fully supportive of sustainable and balanced development and consider it vital that the planning mistakes of the past are not repeated.

For this reason, the MMRA is strongly opposed to unsuitable, badly designed and out of proportion developments which will lead to safety issues, traffic congestion and have a serious adverse impact on the local community.

The proposed development on the site of the Union Cafe premises on a narrow road, opposite a playground, near a school and a church is a perfect example of such ill-conceived development.

The planning application submitted last week is virtually identical to the plans shown to residents earlier this year and its clear the developers have ignored residents’ concerns.

The MMRA will do everything in its power to oppose such developments and encourages other resident associations and public representatives to do likewise.

 What are we asking you to do?

MMRA has retained the services of an experienced architect, an urban planner and a leading Planning Consultant to examine this proposal and their opinion is that the scale and nature of the proposed development is out of character and detrimental for Mount Merrion as a whole and will seriously degrade local amenities.

MMRA will be lodging an observation on the development, however it needs the maximum number of observations to be made to try to influence the Planners.

CHECK LIST

Residents are entitled to object to this development if they agree with this evaluation. To do this they should write a letter outlining the basis for their objection in their own words to:

Chief Planning Officer, County Hall, Marine Road, Dun Laoighre Co Dublin.

  • Letters must contain your name, address and the planning application Ref. number which is:  D16A/0370
  • Enclose the Fee which is €20 either as a cheque or postal order.
  • All objections/comments are published on DLR CC website.
  • You must lodge your objection with the planning office before 27th June.
  • You can only object/comment on planning and development issues.  The planning authority may only consider objections relating to planning issues and not those based on personal dislikes, grievances or opinions

Warning: If you do not object to the initial application you will not be entitled to appeal any subsequent decision to An Bord Pleanala.

Possible grounds for objecting to Union Café

  1. The overdevelopment of the site and unacceptably high density.
  2. Visual impact, scale and mass which is three times greater than allowed on Flanagans.
  3. Proposed development is overbearing, out of scale and out of character when compared with the existing housing stock.
  4. Adverse effect on the residential amenity of neighbours by reason of overlooking, loss of privacy and overshadowing.
  5. Traffic congestion and parking.
  6. Serious risks posed to children and elderly residents from the large volume of commercial traffic required to service such a large retail centre
  7. Over concentration of retail development and disruption of existing businesses, there is no commercial imperative for this development. (Currently 18,000 sq feet retail space – planned additional 24,000 sq feet) It will draw large volumes of traffic to the area and will also have a very negative effect on the long-established local businesses that are a key part of our community. There is a precedent for rejecting such a proposal 242455 (2013).
  8. Destruction of a protected view.

Note: These are suggestions – you may have other grounds which you want to highlight.

Need Help or advice with your submission? Contact us through the website.