The city council's planning department has taken a look at the fences surrounding the new Grand Canal Harbor apartment complex, said Bruce Phillips, executive director of the South Central Area.
This was in response to complaints that they were violating building permits, Phillips said.
“They have come to the conclusion that there is a problem there,” he said at a Dec. 11 meeting of the South Central Area Committee. “And they are currently in the process of having our enforcement department contact the developers and the management company.”
Phillips was responding to a query from Labor councilor Darragh Moriarty.
“I know that many people may have been in contact with you regarding the construction of gates to this apartment complex,” Moriarty had said. “My understanding is that it was intended to be an open courtyard for public circulation and the gates have now been erected.”
In 2019 the council decided to establish Atlas GP Ltd. to grant permission to build the complex with 550 apartments. They later applied for and received approval in 2020 to modify these plans to, among other things, add more apartments, for a total of 596.
Both the original 2019 building permit and the amended 2020 permit mention plans for the apartment complex to be “permeable,” meaning people could pass through it. The images in the applications do not show any gates blocking access to the complex and the traffic-calmed central square within it.
And yet on Monday, black metal fences blocked the entrance from Market Street, where the Guinness Storehouse is located, across Grand Canal Place to the east side of the Grand Canal Harbor complex. And on the west side, from James' Avenue into the complex.
While the fences stretched across these wide open spaces, there were small open gates – suitable for pedestrians. It is not clear whether these are open permanently or only during the day.
Sinn Féin's Máire Devine, a local councilor until November and now a TD, said the fences were the problem. “I can’t find it in the building permit that was issued,” she said via WhatsApp on Monday.
Atlas GP's directors are Patrick Crean, CEO of developer Marlet and director of Marlet Property Group Ltd, and Paul Horn, chairman of Marlet.
Marlet did not respond to a query sent Monday about whether the fences violated the development's planning permission.
Plans for permeability
The Liberties Local Area Plan, a Dublin City Council document setting out a vision for the area, contains a section on this website.
“New urban blocks should be developed to define a route between Market Street South and the LUAS station,” it said. “Pathways through the area should also encourage pedestrian traffic between the port and the hospital.”
The architectural design statement in the amended planning permission issued in 2020 includes public realm objectives for the project. This includes the creation of “new public spaces” and the effort to create a “permeable system”.
“All private rooms on the ground floor [level] will be privately managed and open to the public,” it said. “To maximize the area available for such use and to remove any physical barrier between different types of outdoor spaces, the plan proposes locating residents’ shared outdoor spaces in rooftop gardens.”
Elsewhere, the document states: “The landscaping took into account principles that lead to inclusivity: avoiding physical barriers…”
A rendering of the entrance to the site from the Market Street side shows no fence running over it with a pedestrian gate.
A promotional video on Marlet's website showing three-dimensional renderings of Grand Canal Harbor shows both the Market Street entrance and the James Avenue entrance – without fences.
“With 54% of the project dedicated to public spaces, Grand Canal Harbor will be fully pedestrianized, with internal roads and new routes connecting Market St via Basin View and St James's Hospital,” the website says.
“The public plaza will provide a flexible outdoor space available for open-air markets and events,” it said.
A precedent?
Not too far away, also in the Liberties, the Staycity Aparthotel, which replaced the Tivoli Theater just off Francis Street, also received planning permission (2016) which included a courtyard.
Then, in 2022, it applied for permission to erect a fence over the entrance – including the pedestrian gate – from Francis Street to that courtyard. In order to reduce anti-social behavior, this application stated.
But the council refused to allow this. “A fundamental element of the parental consent,” a planning report states, “was the passage along Francis Street.”
“This was necessary to allow guests and the public access to the new public plaza,” the report said. “Even if the gate is open during the day, the presence of the gate structure itself would deter the community and the general public from entering the site.”
There is no fence or gate there now.