A planning application for a hotel and "licensed restaurant" at Temple Bar's historic Merchant's Arch has been rejected by Dublin City Council.
The site of the proposed development is the China Blue shoe shop which is adjoined to the archway. It consists of a ground floor "licensed restaurant" - meaning alcohol could be served - below eight hotel rooms on two storeys.
Planning permission was previously approved for a three storey "boutique" restaurant and hotel on the other side of the laneway despite objections from local residents. Under the plans which sparked a major protest, four independent shops are set to be demolished at the Temple Bar end of the laneway that runs from the Ha'penny Bridge into the main square of Temple Bar.
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DCC rejected the plans for the hotel at China Blue due to "significant" concerns of an "overconcentration" of licensed premises in Temple Bar. The local authority's report read: "There are significant concerns that the loss of retail and the provision of an additional licensed premises would negatively impact and further erode the variety and diversity of retail within the designated Temple Bar cultural and artistic quarter where there is already a significant quantum of licensed premises."
The application is not in accord with a DDC objective which aims to avoid "the overconcentration and further expansion of licensed premises within the Temple Bar", the report said. The plans may be appealed to An Bord Pleanala.
The report also noted the construction necessary to facilitate such a development would "give rise to seriously adverse" impacts on Merchant's Arch. The Temple Bar Residents Association previously objected to the application saying the area is already "awash" with pubs and restaurants and added "nobody could credibly argue that it needs yet another one".
The Merchant's Arch pub is already in operation across the laneway from the shoe shop. The owner of China Blue Sean O'Connor previously told Dublin Live he is retiring and plans to sell the premises onto "another restaurant". He said: "We are closing our business here."
He added: "No, [I won't be running the restaurant] I'll be retiring. I'm 62. I've been in this arch for 35 years."
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