The Irish Times

Permission has been refused by An Bord Pleanála for yet another high-rise development in the docklands area of Dublin on the grounds of excessive height and other issues. In its second refusal in days, the appeals board turned down plans by Zoe Developments to build 655 apartments, a major hotel and leisure centre and over 8,000 square metres of offices on an eight-acre site at Barrow Street. The site, formerly owned by the Dublin Gas Company, includes a listed Victorian gasholder in which Zoe's architects, O'Mahony Pike, planned to install a circular nine-storey apartment block laid out around an internal landscaped courtyard. Dublin Corporation's decision to approve the scheme was appealed by Iarnród Éireann, which feared the DART line could be destabilised by changes in groundwater levels brought about by the excavation and development of the site.