The Land Development Agency (LDA) has submitted a planning application to An Bord Pleanála for 977 homes on the site of the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum, which if approved will be its biggest project to date and open up a part of Dublin that has been closed off for 170 years.
The proposed redevelopment will consist of 940 apartments, 17 duplexes and 20 homes, with buildings ranging in size from two to seven stories, as well as residential facilities including a community centre, indoor sports centre, medical centre, café and childcare facility.
The application covers 9.6 hectares of the 11.3-hectare site, with the remaining area encompassing the location of the main hospital buildings, which are still in use, and the plans sets out a phased approach to adapting the buildings for future use at a later stage of development following the relocation of the hospital's operations to a new site in Portrane, north Dublin.
Three hectares or around 30% of the site have been allocated as open space for play areas, greenways and the enhancement of existing walled gardens, and parts of the hospital’s existing perimeter wall will be removed to improve public access and permeability.
Plans have been finalised after a four-phase public consultation and engagement process that commenced in autumn 2020 and involved 25 meetings between the LDA, local stakeholders and elected representatives, four online webinars, and responses to 1,000 emails.
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The LDA said it had taken into consideration key issues such as access to green spaces, community infrastructure, reduced car usage -- it is located 450 metres from Windy Arbour Luas station -- and sustainability in developing its proposals, which include some scope for affordable and social housing.
"The site has the potential to be a transformative development with a holistic masterplan that is sensitive to best practice planning in terms of compact growth and sustainable development," John Coleman, CEO of the LDA, said.
"We have looked to balance the need to optimise use of this landmark state-owned site to deliver much needed housing with the desire to integrate into an existing neighbourhood.
"By delivering affordable homes at scale, the LDA will contribute vital housing supply that will help to give a fair deal to the many thousands of people who are struggling in the private market, but don’t qualify for social housing.”
The LDA is the state's primary body for the development of cost-rental housing under the Housing for All plan, and the agency said its approach is consistent with the National Planning Framework's policy of compact growth in urban areas while seeking to deliver on Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council’s objectives for the regeneration of the site.
The application also includes an environmental impact assessment report, and the LDA said that biodiversity will be prioritised as part of the development, with plans to preserve the vast majority of the site’s existing mature trees and supplementary planting.
Of the proposed 977 homes, there would be 53 studio apartments, 423 one-bed apartments, 354 two-bed apartments, 110 three-bed apartments, three two-bed duplexes, 14 three-bed duplexes, seven three-bed houses, and 14 four-bed houses.
The Central Mental Hospital, previously known as the Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum, first opened in 1850 and was the first facility in Ireland to provide treatment for the mentally ill who had committed a crime.
(Pic: Land Development Agency - The site for the proposed redevelopment of the Central Mental Hospital. (Pic: LDA))
