Trinity disputes Dublin City Council planning contribution charge for €60m development
Trinity College Dublin (TCD) is claiming that Dublin City Council has overcharged it over €300,000 in planning contributions for its new €60m E3 Foundry.
The proposal for the city centre campus involves new schools for engineering, computer science and natural science which TCD state will result in the revitalisation of the eastern side of the campus.
The new E3 Foundry proposal has been made possible through a €25m donation by the Naughton family through the founder of the Glen Dimplex Group, Dr Martin Naughton, and his wife, Carmel.
Last month, the city council granted planning permission for the development that will facilitate an increase of 1,800 students leading to a total of 4,800 in the three schools.
However, the Council is demanding as part of the conditions attached that TCD pay out a total of €744,311 in planning public infrastructure contributions and contributions towards the LUAS cross city line.
Now, TCD has appealed the conditions demanding the €744,311 to An Bord Pleanala claiming that it has been overcharged €334,776.
As part of the conditions attached, the Council has demanded €494,233 towards public infrastructure and an additional €250,078 towards the LUAS Cross City Scheme.
However, TCD state that the €494,233 contribution was incorrectly calculated saying it was overcharged €222,296.
TCD claim the correct contribution should be €271,937.
In respect of the contribution of €250,078 towards the LUAS Cross City Line, TCD claim that the City Council overcharged the college €112,480 and should be revised down to €137,598.
The college claims that the City Council did not take account of the demolition of the bio-chemistry building that the E3 building will replace when making its calculation for the planning contribution for the net additional space.
TCD said that the demolition of the bio-chemistry building was obtained first in a separate application through a two-stage planning process.
Consultants for TCD said: “To disallow the permitted demolition area against the new building seriously disadvantages Trinity College in the available funding for the project and is an unfair and improper application of the contribution schemes.
The college has been charged €75.10 per square metre (sqm) for general public infrastructure planning contributions and €38 per sqm for the Cross City Luas.
TCD said that it has been charged in respect of 6,581 sqm whereas it should have been charged in respect of 3,621 sq m.
In its appeal, the consultants for TCD state that the proposal involves the demolition of a 50-year-old building that is not fit for purpose and replacing it with a modern E3 Learning building.
A decision is due on the appeal in March of next year.
