‘Lessons learned’ as Kelly family scales back plans for housing scheme in south Dublin

A housing development proposed on the site of two cottages in south Co Dublin has been significantly scaled back after a previous planning application was thrown out and the project was held up in the appeals process for nearly two years.

The initial plans were deemed to constitute “overdevelopment” of the area, between Foxrock and Blackrock, although the team behind the project says the renewed proposal “is heavily informed [by] lessons learned” from its past experience.

Developer Kelland Homes has applied for permission to construct 22 houses and apartments in blocks up to three storeys tall on a site facing the Clonkeen Road in Deansgrange, documents filed last week to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council show.

The developer spent more than €2.5 million in total through two purchases more than five years apart from one another, to acquire the site that consists of two two-bedroom bungalow cottages and amounts to a little over a quarter of a hectare in size.

Kelland’s new application has reduced the number of planned units by more than a third. The developer previously sought to construct 35 apartments in blocks up to six storeys tall, planning records from nearly four years ago show.

The local council rejected the initial proposal in April 2022, with its planning office stating the “overall scale, height and form” of the development would be “detrimental” to the surrounding properties. Its “visually overbearing” stature would “unreasonably compromise” the local area, planning documents read.

An appeal was lodged in May 2022 by Kelland Homes, which was established in the 1970s by Patrick Kelly, the well-known Celtic Tiger-era property tycoon. The company is still largely owned by Kelly’s family.

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In January 2024, nearly two years after the planning application was submitted, An Bord Pleanála (now known as An Coimisiún Pleanála) upheld the council’s decision.

The State planning authority said the plans “would constitute overdevelopment” and “would seriously injure the residential and visual amenities of property in the vicinity of the site”.

In supporting documents submitted last week to the council, a town planning consultancy firm working on behalf of Kelland Homes said that the “revised proposals” are “substantially different” from the original development and its volume has been “significantly reduced”.

The developer is now seeking permission to construct 10 town houses of three or four bedrooms and 10 apartments of two or three bedrooms, not exceeding three storeys in height, the renewed planning application reads.

The site currently hosts two semidetached bungalows, which Kelland Homes proposes to partially demolish and later refurbish. The two properties sit on a combined 0.43 hectares, according to data from Tailte Éireann, which maintains the State’s official land register.

One of the homes, 21 Monaloe Cottages, was sold in October 2020 for €1,625,000, while the adjoining 20 Monaloe Cottages property was sold in April 2026 for €900,000, according to the Property Price Register. Both cottages had two bedrooms at the time of their sale.

Kelland Homes also proposes “the relocation of the existing bus shelter and associated bus stop on Clonkeen Road”, which services the Dublin Bus L26 route to Blackrock Dart station, to provide space for the development’s entrance.