Cairn Homes loses bid to keep Knocknacarra land off Vacant Sites Register

A property company – backed by some of the biggest financiers and investment funds in the world – has failed in its bid to prevent a site it owns in Knocknacarra being added to the Vacant Sites Register.

The ruling by An Bord Pleanála means that Cairn Homes Properties Ltd is liable to pay a levy of 7% of the market value of the site at Upper Ballymoneen Road for 2019 and each subsequent year it lies undeveloped.

The site was valued at €400,000 earlier this year, meaning the company already owes the Council €28,000 for 2019.

The Vacant Sites Register came into effect in 2018 – it is designed to force builders to develop their residential landholdings in areas where there is a need for housing and the site is lying idle.

Under the Urban Regeneration and Housing Act 2015, the City Council formed the opinion that the greenfield site – beside the Fana Buí estate – had been vacant for a minimum of 12 months.

The Council said that housing supply remained below demand requirements despite the upturn in construction (before the Covid-19 outbreak).

“The scale of unmet housing needs has grown over the period of the previous and current City Development Plan and requires an increase in housing output,” the Council said.

Cairn Homes subsequently appealed that decision to An Bord Pleanála and said the site formed part of a larger landholding on the western side of the Ballymoneen Road for which they were planning an application under Strategic Housing Development legislation, where plans for more than 100 homes or 200 student bed spaces are lodged directly with An Bord Pleanála rather than the local authority.

The company said the proposed N6 Galway City Ring Road bisects the northern section of the site and without a detailed design of the road, it could not progress the planning application.

The Council told the Board that Cairn Homes had sufficient information on the ring road to allow them advance a planning application – details of site access were provided by Arup, the consultants behind the ring road plan.

However, the Board ruled that the site is vacant, paving the way for it to be added to the register.

“It is evident that the bypass route does not directly impact upon the subject vacant site. The subject site is accessible from the Ballymoneen Road and, therefore, is not reliant on the bypass for access.

“I am not satisfied that an application for residential development could not be progressed on the subject lands pending the resolution of the final layout of the bypass if approved.

“Development could be progressed on a phased basis in accordance with an overall masterplan, with a first phase on the subject site. This in my view would not constitute piecemeal development.

“It is also detailed that the appellant has been proactively progressing a masterplan for the site and has carried out a number of surveys including topographical survey, site investigations, ecological assessment and archaeological assessment and, therefore, that the lands are not idle. Having regard to the nature of the surveys described by the appellant, I am satisfied that these do not constitute development works. The lands remain vacant or idle,” Senior Planning Inspector Erika Casey ruled.

Major investors in Cairn Homes – where the former CEO of KBC Bank serves on the board – include Moore Capital, which is operated by Wall Street billionaire Louis Bacon; JP Morgan Asset Management; Lansdowne Partners and GLG Partners, some of the biggest investment fund managers in Britain.

Cairn’s CEO and founder is Michael Stanley, a director and former CEO of Stanley Holdings – the company behind the controversial Belmayne development in North Dublin, which was launched at the height of the boom in 2007 by footballer Jamie Redknapp and his popstar wife, Louise.