Vacant site levy costs Kildare developer nearly a quarter of site valuation

An Bord Pleanála has upheld a demand by Kildare County Council (KCC) to issue a bill for €178,500 as a vacant sites levy on the owners of a site of land at Ferns Bridge just north of Monasterevin Railway Station.

The bill is €59,000 a year for the three years 2021-23 inclusive, and served on the owners Masonbrook Holdings on 8 April 2024 in the first instance.

Masonbrook Holdings is based out of Johnstown and has built a lot of the nearby Brocan estates.

The 3.24Ha (8.1ac) site was originally valued at €850,000 in August 2021, and the vacant site levy of €59,500 a year is seven per cent of that estimation.

The first levy of this amount was issued in August 2022 for the year of 2020 and was successfully appealed to An Bord Pleanála who deemed the levy as “incorrectly calculated” as the site had not been on the vacant sites register on 1 January, 2020 in accordance with the Housing Act.

However, by the time KCC got round to issuing a levy in 2024 for the second time, it had got its ducks in a row by having the site formally placed on the register on 18 December 2020, hence the decision by ABP to uphold the council’s demand.

Under the existing Monasterevin Local Area Plan (2016-22) this site was zoned as ‘New Residential’, and has had an extensive planning history – most recently for 77 dwellings in 2021 – but originally for a highly optimistic 466 houses back in 2004.

In the an Bord Pleanála report, it is noted that even though the 2021 application was granted permission by the county council, “no commencement notices have been submitted”.