An Bord Pleanála is currently dealing with 47 separate Strategic Housing Development planning applications comprising over 13,300 residential units.
The upsurge in the appeals board dealing with the 'fast track' planning applications lodged by developers is in response to a decision by Government to phase out the ‘fast track’ process where developers can by-pass local authorities and lodge schemes straight to An Bord Pleanála.
A large factor in the sharp increase in SHDs to be decided upon was a pre-Christmas rush where 10 applications comprising 2,750 units were lodged in four days from December 20 to December 23.
Four new SHD applications lodged in recent days comprising 887 units brings to 13,363 units in 47 separate applications that the appeals board must decide upon before May 16. Most of the applications are for the Dublin area.
The total doesn't include 594 student bed-spaces in two SHD applications.
In the vast bulk of SHD cases, the appeals board grants planning permission and now the appeals board has given the green light to two SHDs made up of almost 500 units in Co Louth and west Dublin.
On Friday, the appeals board granted planning permission to Loughdale Properties Ltd to construct 237 dwellings made up of 86 houses and 151 apartments on a site located adjacent to a M1 interchange 2.5km from Drogheda town centre.
In a condition locking out institutional investors from bulk buying the houses, the appeals board has restricted the purchase of the houses to individual purchasers "in order to ensure an adequate choice and supply of housing, including affordable housing, in the common good".
The board determined that the proposed scheme would be acceptable in terms of design, scale, height, mix and quantum of development at the infill site location in Drogheda.
The owners of Loughdale Properties Ltd are listed as John Barry and Godfrey Hogan.
