At the start of April a Large-scale Residential Development application was made to Dublin City Council for the development of 811 apartments, a gym, a café, co-working space, a community library, a childcare facility, and a community hall at the St. Vincent’s Hospital site off Richmond Road. A new hospital building, providing mental health services, will also be built. The last day for observations is Tuesday 10th May 2023.
What is a Large-scale Residential Development (LRD)
Large-scale Residential Development is the process that replaces the Strategic Housing Development (SHD) process. It is similar to the SHD process in that it deals with applications for 100 or more houses or 200 or more student accommodation bed spaces.
A key difference however is that Large-scale Residential Development applications are made directly to the local authority (Dublin City Council in this case). Strategic Housing Development applications were made to An Bord Pleanála.
Unix Mix
The residential units will be split across 9 blocks: A, B, C, D-E, F, G, H, J, and L. Block K is the location of the community facilities.
The units are split as follows
- 494 standard design apartments
- 317 Build to Rent apartments
Note that this refers to the building standards. The Build to Rent apartments must be rented for a minimum of 15 years. The standard design apartments may be rented or sold.
The 811 units in the development are split as follows:
- 18 studios
- 387 one bed apartments
- 349 two bed apartments
- 57 three bed apartments
Height
The blocks are laid out as follows
- Block A: 2 to 7 storeys
- Block B: 8 storeys
- Block C: 6 to 7 storeys
- Block D-E: 5 to 13 storeys
- Block F: 4 to 9 storeys
- Block G: 4 to 9 storeys
- Block H: 5 storeys
- Block J: 4 storey (extension to St. Vincent’s Hospital building)
- Block K: refurbished St. Vincent’s Hospital building
- Block L: 4 to 6 storeys

Part V Social Housing
Dublin City Council’s preferred option is to acquire units on site to fulfil the Part V Social Housing obligation. Dublin City Council will acquire 174
units to meet the Part V requirement (i.e. 21.45% of total number of units)
Community spaces
The applicant has identified the following community spaces
Community facilities
- Community Hall - 243 sqm
- Community library - 163 sqm
Commercial facilities
- Café - 160 sqm
- Co-working space - 817 sqm
- Gym - 1,459 sqm
- Childcare facility - 730 sqm (77 childcare spaces)
- Retail (Block A+F) 898 sqm

Parking
A basement will include
- 240 no. car parking spaces for the residential development
- 6 accessible spaces
- 7 no. car share spaces
- 120 no. EV charging spaces
- 9 bicycle stores providing a 947 cycle spaces (including cargo bikes and electric bikes)
- 13 no. motorcycle spaces
At surface level for residential, commercial, and community uses:
- 16 car parking spaces
- 817 bicycle spaces
More information
The application reference is LRD6009/23-S3
A web site for the application is available at stvincentshospitallrd.ie
Last day for observations is Wednesday 10th of May 2023.
On Wednesday the 3rd of May at 8pm I will host a zoom call to discuss the application, hear any observations from people in the area with a view to sending an observation to Dublin City Council. Register for that meeting here https://m.neasahourigan.com/st-vincents-lrd
A guide to making a planning observation can be found at neasahourigan.com/observation.
Please get in contact with any queries at neasa.hourigan@oireachtas.ie

