€10.4m apartment and house plan for Kildare site near town centre is rejected by planning authority

A plan to develop an apartment complex near the town centre in Naas has been rejected.

An Comisiún Pleanála, the planning appeals board, made the decision saying the proposal would result in “a cramped and sub standard form of development.”

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A Dublin-based company, Whistlebrook Ltd., wanted to build 56 residential units, principally apartments on a site at Corban’s Lane, adjacent to the Naas CBS secondary school.

The site occupies 1.26 acres.

The company also said it also wanted planning permission for three commercial units on the site.

The site is metres away from the unopened Naas Shopping Centre.

The plan got the green light from Kildare County Council, which imposed a development contribution levies bill of €330,000.

The project was valued at €10.4m and it envisaged 52 apartments and four semi detached homes. 

It included 32 car parking spaces. The plan would have created two four-storey blocks.

The original application by the company attracted a raft of objections, principally concerned with the density of the development and inadequate provision of car parking spaces and KCC’s decision was appealed by some.

ACP criticised the density of the development, saying it would be inconsistent with the prevailing density in the area and this would result in "overdevelopment of the site.”

It also said that the amount of some of the proposed car parking there was contrary to the Kildare County Development Plan and the Naas Local Area Plan (NLAP) and would "negatively impact on the residential amenity of the area.”

It also said the demand created for car parking would result in "overspill" on the road and this would compromise KCC’s own long term aims for the area in the NLAP.