Student apartment blocks near MTU's Cork campus get go-ahead
Of Student Apartments An Avenue Ie Impression The Artist's Photo: Rossaavenuelrd Rossa
Planning has been granted for a 205-bedroom student apartment scheme up to four storeys high just metres from Munster Technological University’s main Cork campus.
Despite intense local opposition, the Rossa Avenue scheme, earmarked for a triangular site almost facing the entrance to MTU’s Bishopstown site, was approved by city council planners with a range of routine and standard conditions attached.
The ‘large residential scheme’ is the first new purpose-built student apartment accommodation proposed for the southern side of MTU’s campus, in what is a largely residential area, with bungalows the dominant form of residential development in the immediate area.
Previous large student apartment schemes have been built to the north, including Parchment Square, Melbourn Point and Edenhall.
But developers, Nyle General Partner Ltd, described their Rossa Avenue site as “a prime location” to accommodate student housing, within 20 metres of pedestrian entrances to MTU, within walking distance of Wilton shopping centre, grocery stores and Cork University Hospital, on an active travel route, within a two-minute walk of the MTU bus stop, close to the 24-hour 220 bus route and the proposed Cork light rail route.
The developers said the site includes an existing “dated” private detached house and the “substandard” Courtville student accommodation building – both of which are set to be demolished for the new scheme.
Their application sought permission for a mix of three apartment buildings and several townhouse units, in buildings between three and four storeys high, to create a central courtyard, with two roof gardens, four set-down parking spaces and 104-bike parking spaces.
After pre-planning meetings with city planners, the developers made several amendments to the design and layout of the scheme, including placing the apartment blocks on the corners of the triangular site, to bookend the terraced townhouses.
They also increased the width of the "defensible space" to create a wider "privacy buffer" outside the ground floor townhouses. They said the scheme is badly needed given the increasing student numbers at MTU and insisted that the scheme will “contribute greatly to the quality of life of its student residents”.
However, more than 130 local residents made submissions, with many objecting to the scale and height of the proposed development in the residential area.
The objection from the Melbourn Residents’ Association expressed concerns about the “excessive height of the buildings in an area surrounded by single-storey dwellings”, and argued that the proposed development would create an “overwhelming visual impact and would be out of character with the existing area”.
But planners said having regard to the nature, location and context of the size and surrounding area, the policies and objectives of the city development plan, and the nature and scale of the proposed development, it is considered that it would not seriously injure the residential or visual amenities of the area and is in accordance with the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.
Anyone who made a submission on the planning application can appeal the decision to An Bord Pleanála.