Activist Ali Hewson and other Killiney residents may face a fresh planning battle over a bid to build a housing development on the grounds of Montebello House.
Plans were lodged with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council on Monday but were invalidated by the council on a technical point and are expected to be re-lodged in the coming days.
Covelo Developments Ltd has lodged plans with the council to construct a 32-unit apartment scheme on the site.
The scheme envisages a three-storey block with one-, two- and three-bed apartments at Montebello House on Killiney Hill Road.
The planning application comes eight months after An Coimisiún Pleanála refused planning permission to Covelo Developments for four “very large” two-storey, four-bedroom flat-roofed houses.
The planning body said the scheme “would represent underdevelopment of an accessible site with convenient access to frequent public transport services via Killiney Dart station and facilities in the nearby neighbourhood centre”.
The commission’s decision upheld a refusal issued by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council in April 2025 after Hewson and choreographer Morleigh Steinberg (the wives of U2 band members Bono and The Edge) lodged objections.
The decision left the door open for Covelo to seek planning for a much larger development on the site.
In a planning report lodged with the new scheme proposal, Kevin Hughes, planning consultant for Covelo, said that it “provides an appropriate density of development, in line with the density range guided by national policy, thus directly addressing the refusal reason raised by both the planning authority and the commission in respect of the recent application on this site”.
The scheme is designed by PCOT Architects and a design statement lodged with the application said that the design goal “is to create a high-quality residential development that incorporates sustainable design to ensure the development can be delivered in a manner that protects [the] local neighbourhood and at the same time contribute positively to the local context”.
In her objection to Covelo’s previous scheme, Hewson said: “We feel that this development, by introducing modern housing in such proximity to Montebello House, would significantly alter the character of its setting, thereby contravening these guidelines.”