As part of the Government's Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan on Housing and Homelessness, the Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Act 2016 (the Act) introduced new streamlined arrangements to enable planning applications for strategic housing developments (SHDs) of 100 housing units or more, or student accommodation or shared accommodation developments of 200 bed spaces or more, to be made directly to An Bord Pleanála (the Board) for determination.
The Planning Code does not prohibit an applicant from submitting a subsequent application for a site which has already been granted planning permission. This subsequent application would be classed as a new application. Under section 4 of the Act, all applications that meet the SHD threshold criteria must be submitted to the Board for consideration.
Furthermore, under section 146B of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, the Board can also receive and decide upon proposals to amend permissions which have already been granted in respect of SHD proposals. This possibility was not availed of by the developers of the SHD in question. Instead, they decided to submit a new application proposing to add an additional 10 housing units to the permission that had already been previously granted.
Under section 30 of the Act, I am specifically precluded from exercising any power or control in relation to any particular case with which a planning authority or An Bord Pleanála is or may be concerned.
