New Kildare estate gets greenlight on appeal
The application had originally been refused by Kildare planners
AN COIMISIÚN Pleanála has overturned a refusal by Kildare County Council and granted planning permission for a 93-home residential development and crèche in Prosperous.
The decision allows the development to proceed at Curryhills, following an appeal by applicant Bernard Moran against the council’s refusal of the scheme in December 2024.
The project consists of 93 dwellings in total, including 28 apartments and duplex apartments across three blocks, 56 semi-detached two-storey houses, nine detached houses, a single-storey crèche, a natural playscape and landscaped linear park, and delivery of part of a planned transport link road objective. The council rejected the development, ruling that the scale of the proposal would significantly exceed Prosperous housing targets set out in the county development plan 2023–2029 and would contravene the core strategy for the area.
It also found that elements of the housing and the proposed crèche would be located on land zoned for open space and amenity, where such uses are not permitted, and said aspects of the apartment block design fell below required urban design standards.
However, in its appeal decision An Coimisiún Pleanála granted permission subject to conditions.
While it accepted that the proposal would materially contravene the development plan’s core strategy housing target for Prosperous, it found that approval was justified under the Planning and Development Act 2000 because of relevant Government policy supporting additional housing delivery.
The commission cited the National Planning Framework First Revision, approved by government last April, and said the site’s zoned and serviced status, proximity to the town centre, and the moderate scale of the scheme in overall terms supported approval.
It also noted that the project would deliver part of a planned transport link objective and said the wider area could absorb the development without setting an undesirable planning precedent.
It concluded that, subject to the conditions laid out, the scheme would not seriously injure the residential or visual amenities of the area. It found the design, layout, scale and housing mix acceptable and said the project represented an efficient use of serviced land within the settlement.
Conditions attached to the permission include a five-year time limit for delivery, a requirement for a phasing plan, ecological and biodiversity protections including a pre-construction badger survey.
Further conditions require a social and affordable housing agreement and restrict initial sales of houses and duplex units to individual purchasers or eligible social and affordable housing occupants, rather than corporate buyers, for a minimum period unless it can be shown the units cannot be sold.
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
