Inspector’s Report Development : The construction of a single storey dwelling house with a domestic wastewater treatment system, landscaping and site development works at Mount Venus Road, Woodtown, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16. Application Planning authority: South Dublin County Council Planning application reg. no. SD10A/0043 Applicant: Karen McGrath Type of application: Permission Planning authority decision: Refusal Appeal Appellant: Karen McGrath Type of appeal: First party -v- Decision Observers: None Date of site inspection 21 st July 2010 Inspector : Hugh D. Morrison ___________________________________________________________________________________ PL06S.236744 An Bord Pleanála Page 1 of 8 Site description The appeal site is located on the outside of the M50 ring, some 2 km to the south of Ballyboden. This site lies off Mount Venus Road, a link road that runs east/west between Edmondstown Road/Cruagh Road (R116) and Stocking Lane/Killakee Road (R115). Its gated entranceway abuts this Road and there are dwellings on either side, i.e. Woodtown Cottages to the east and “Woodfield” a new split level bungalow to the west. The body of the appeal site is of regular shape and it extends over an area of 0.53 hectares. This site lies to the rear of the Cottages and partly to the side of the split level bungalow. It is a back land/green field site, which is subject to gentle/moderate gradients that generally slope downwards from west to east. To the northeast and northwest (partially), its boundaries abut the aforementioned residential properties, while the remaining boundaries are undefined. A dolmen/portal tomb (recorded monument (DU025-002)) lies in a position surrounded by trees to the southeast of the site. Proposed development The proposed development would entail the construction of a single storey, 237.6 sqm, 4 bedroom, dwelling house of contemporary design. This dwelling house would be served by the public mains water supply and a septic tank/percolation area. The existing access would be utilised and extended to serve the dwelling houses and the existing tree/hedgerow cover would be retained. Planning authority’s decision Permission was refused for the following three reasons: • Inadequate road frontage / backland development / precedent / loss of rural amenity / material contravention of zoning objective, • Suburban design / spoil scenic views from the south / loss of rural amenity / material contravention of zoning objective, and • Prejudicial to public health: siting of percolation areas outside the appeal site and non-conforming site characterisation study. Technical reports Environmental Services and Parks and Landscape Services raise no objection, subject to conditions, while Roads and the HSE draw attention variously to the sub-standard characteristics of Mount Venus Road and hence the undesirability of an additional access and the need for a new site suitability assessment report and the retention of trial pits insitu. ___________________________________________________________________________________ PL06S.236744 An Bord Pleanála Page 2 of 8 Grounds of appeal First reason Attention is drawn to the permission granted to application reg. no. 87A-1348 for access to the current appeal site and the adjoining property to the north. It was always intended that the former access, too, would serve a dwelling. Examples exist of the planning authority permitting clusters of dwellings off the one access, cf. application reg. no. S01A/0129 for a bungalow at Woodtown, Kilakee Road, Co. Dublin. Second reason While the critique of the proposal’s contemporary design is not accepted, if this critique is upheld then the applicant is prepared to accept a smaller dwelling of simpler design and fewer finishing materials. (Plans of such a dwelling have been submitted at this stage). Third reason The proposed percolation area can be resited inside the appeal site, and The submitted site characterisation study was carried out in 2006. It does not need to be repeated as the “Code of Practice: Wastewater Treatment and Diposal Systems serving Single Dwellings (2009)” does not require that a different approach be adopted. Response The planning authority considers that these grounds do not overcome its reasons for refusal. Planning history Appeal site • SD02A/0462 for a dwelling house, a septic tank and an access, by upgrading the existing entrance to family lands from Killakee Road was granted permission, • SD09A/0146 for a part single/part two storey dwelling house, a domestic wastewater treatment system and an access off Mount Venus Road was refused permission on the grounds of design/visual obtrusiveness, lack of road frontage/access off sub-standard portion of road and backland development, and • PP290/09: applicant advised to address reasons for previous refusal. ___________________________________________________________________________________ PL06S.236744 An Bord Pleanála Page 3 of 8 Adjoining site • SD04A/0872 for single storey dwelling house, a biocycle wastewater treatment system and modifications to existing access off Mount Venus Road was granted permission. Development Plan The appeal site is shown in the South Dublin County Development Plan 2004 – 2010 as lying within a zone that is the subject of objective B “To protect and improve rural amenity and to provide for the development of agriculture.” The use class “residential” is open for consideration in this zone. Copies of the policy on the control of one-off housing within this zone and development control guidelines on such housing are attached as an appendix to this report. National planning guidelines • National Spatial strategy, and • Sustainable Rural Housing Guidelines Assessment I have reviewed the proposed development in the light of the CDP, national planning guidelines, relevant planning history and the submissions of the applicant and the planning authority. Accordingly, I consider that the decision on this appeal turns on the resolution of the following issues: (i) The applicant’s candidature for a dwelling in this rural area, (ii) The location of the appeal site, (iii) The design of the proposed dwelling house, (iv) The proposed access, and (v) The proposed percolation areas. I will discuss each of these issues in turn. (i) The applicant’s candidature for a dwelling in this rural area. 1.1 The NSS indicative outline of rural area types shows rural areas around Dublin as being under strong urban influence. The CDP shows the appeal site as lying within an area that is zoned objective B, “To protect and improve rural amenity and to provide for the development of agriculture.” Within this area, dwellings will only be permitted on suitable sites where applicants can either establish a genuine need to reside in proximity to their employment, which must be related to the rural community, or where they have close family ties with this community. ___________________________________________________________________________________ PL06S.236744 An Bord Pleanála Page 4 of 8 1.2 The applicant has submitted copies of documents in support of her application. She has not indicated under which of the two aforementioned headings she is applying. Some of these documents have a bearing on the first heading and some on the second. 1.3 With respect to the former, the applicant is described as being self employed and so she is in a position to assist as needs be with farm work on her parents’ farm. The nature of her employment is not fully elucidated, i.e. there is only a reference to freelance TV producer/director work in 2006, and so I am unable to conclude that she is employed in work related to the rural community. 1.4 With respect to the latter, the applicant has demonstrated that she has close family ties with the rural community, by referring to her background and upbringing on Woodtown Farm, Mount Venus, her local schooling and her current residency with her own family and her parents on this Farm. 1.5 I, therefore, conclude that the applicant is a candidate for a dwelling in this rural area. (ii) The location of the appeal site. 2.1 Mount Venus Road is subject to the same zoning as the appeal site. Within the vicinity of this site this Road has been developed by means of one-off dwelling houses on their own sites. The majority of these more recent dwelling houses have been developed on sites with frontages, which are dimensionally of the order of 60m in length. 2.2 The CDP envisages two approaches to the siting of rural dwellings. The preferred approach is the clustering of dwellings. The Sustainable Rural Housing Guidelines also advocate this approach and they indicate that clusters should be set well back from the public road and be served by an individual entrance. The other approach entails the development of one-off dwellings on individual sites with a road frontage of at least 60m “so as to preserve the rural quality of the area and to avoid a suburban form of development.” 2.3 The CDP’s preference for clustering is expressed in terms of only acceding to the alternative approach if it cannot be achieved. The pattern of development exhibited along Mount Venus Road accords with this alternative approach. While it maybe anachronistic to interpret this outcome as indicating that clustering was unachievable in the past, for clustering now to be proposed would risk the two approaches occurring side by side and, in aggregate, both a greater loss of countryside to residential development and an over concentration of such development. 2.4 The proposed development of the appeal site would represent neither of the two aforementioned approaches, i.e. as a single dwelling it would not form part of a cluster and yet as such it would have a road frontage of only 12m. As the body of this site lies to the rear of Woodtown Cottages and ___________________________________________________________________________________ PL06S.236744 An Bord Pleanála Page 5 of 8 partly to the side of Woodfield, all of which are residential properties that front onto Mount Venus Road, it represents a back land site that the CDP does not envisage being developed for housing in a rural area.