COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, May 14, 2007

MOTION No. 9

MOTION: Councillor T. Ridge

That this Council agree that apartment buildings in this Council should include the following - a concierge service, and coin operated washing and drying machines in a communal area which would do away with the need to dry clothes on balconies.

REPORT:

The universal application of a requirement to provide a concierge service and communal laundry facilities would not be practical and would require a level of estate management charge (management fee) that apartment residents are unlikely to be willing to incur.  

A certain threshold of development size and type of apartment development is required to make a concierge service viable.  The same also applies to communal laundry facilities, but experience both internationally and in has indicated that even where such facilities are provided, there is a strong preference on the part of apartment dwellers to have such facilities available to them within the individual dwelling unit i.e. not to use communal facilities, relatively remote from the dwelling unit.  

In Tallaght Town Centre, where there had been significant apartment development to date, the Council  has  introduced certain requirements for future apartment schemes through the Tallaght Town Center Local Area Plan (LAP).  These include a concierge type unit for developments above a certain threshold size and a utility and drying area within all  individual apartment units above a certain size.  The latter requirement requires a larger average unit size, which is also proposed as part of the LAP in any event, as it is necessary to allocate a certain amount of space within each dwelling to the utility area.  

It is intended that this will set an improved standard and result in better quality apartment developments and it is feasible that these requirements could be applied more widely within the County.  The Department of the Environment Housing and Local Government is currently reviewing a variety of issues related to the design of apartments and have recently issued Draft Guidelines on the matter ie “Sustainable Urban Housing: Design Standards for Apartments - Consultation Draft Guidelines for Planning Authorities”. South Dublin County Council have made a detailed submission to the Department concerning the Draft Guidelines and suggested, inter alia, 1) that provision should be made for drying areas/facilities in apartments and outlining the approach used in  the Tallaght Local Area Plan and 2) that a  dedicated section regarding Safety and Security would provide useful guidance for designers and that this section would address such issues as the need for concierge/security units in large apartment developments.    

It is considered appropriate that the LAP requirements would initially be applied to the Tallaght TC area and that the final DOEHLG Guidelines would be awaited before determining both whether to apply them more widely and by what process that may be acheived.