DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL has cited the ongoing housing crisis as grounds for refusing planning permission for a new 111-bedroom hotel for Dublin city centre.

Last year, Appalachian Property Holdings Ltd lodged hotel plans to change the use of three floors from office to hotel and construct a new six storey extension at 19-24 at St Andrew’s Street, Dublin 2 while the An Post branch on the ground floor would continue.

The site is located less than 500 metres from College Green and Grafton Street.

In refusing planning permission for the scheme, the City Council has stated that taking into account the ongoing housing crisis and the clear direction in the city development plan in terms of promoting mixed use development with a focus on residential in the city centre, the proposed change of use to hotel does not represent the best use of the upper floors of this partially vacant city centre site.

As part of its refusal, the Council also cited Council’s Housing Need Demand Assessment (HNDA) which recognises a high demand for long term residential rental properties such as apartments in Dublin City where the emerging trend shows an increase of rental demand for this type of residential accommodation.

The Council concluded that the proposed hotel scheme would set an undesirable precedent for similar type development.

The planning authority also concluded that the proposed works would give rise to an unacceptably adverse and injurious impact on the special architectural character and setting of the subject building which is a Protected Structure.

The Council refusal came despite an endorsement of the scheme by Failte Ireland.

In a submission, Failte Ireland’s Management of Environment and Planning, Shane Dineen told the Council that “there is a well recognised shortage of tourist accommodation in Dublin”

Dineen stated that the proposed hotel “would be a valuable addition to the tourist accommodation stock in Dublin and would go some way to address the tourism accommodation shortages being faced by the city”.

In support of scheme, Associate at Tom Phillips + Associates, Lizzie Donnelly told the Council that the scheme “has been designed sensitively and will not give rise to unacceptable impacts upon the surrounding context”.

Donnelly stated that the hotel scheme will bring “a mainly vacant and therefore significantly under-utilised Protected Structure back into active use and everyday enjoyment”.

In a second blow for the tourist sector in the city centre, the Council has also refused planning permission for a new large hotel extension planned for Temple Bar.

Last August, Ampbay Ltd lodged plans to increase the size of the Paramount Hotel on Parliament Street from a 66 bedroom hotel to a 108 bedroom hotel.

However, in refusing planning permission, the Council has ruled that the scheme would represent an overdevelopment of the site and fail to integrate with the existing and surrounding development and would adversely affect the character and setting of protected structures.

The Council also refused planning permission after concluding that the proposed demolition of No 32 Parliament Street cannot be justified from an architectural heritage perspective as it clearly retained significant army 18th century fabric.