Appeal against derelict property levies backfires with landowner now to pay double

A Limerick city landowner’s appeal against derelict site levies has failed, resulting in the tariffs being doubled to €140,000.Limerick City and County Council imposed a €35,000 levy for 2023 and the same amount for 2024 on Thanos Securities Limited as the owner of long-vacant 34-41 Catherine Street, a former pub, nightclub and newspaper facility, which had been added to the local authority’s vacant sites register in 2018. The total levies came to €70,000 for the two years.Thanos appealed to An Coimisiún Pleanála (ACP), arguing the site was not vacant or idle and that significant work had been carried out between 2019 and 2023 to improve its condition. It said scaffolding and hoarding were erected in 2022 as part of enabling works, while the site was used from early 2023 as a construction compound to facilitate nearby building works by the Peter McVerry Trust in conjunction with the local authority. It also raised questions about the site valuation.READ MOREACP rejected Thanos’s arguments, finding the temporary use of the site for nearby construction did not change its vacant status. Its inspector acknowledged significant improvements had been made to the site’s appearance, but she said the buildings remained undeveloped and “significantly detract” from the area.The inspector determined the €35,000-a-year levies issued by the council had been incorrectly calculated. She found these should have been €70,000 for each year, being 7 per cent of the site’s €1 million valuation. The new levies total came to €140,000 for the two years.The site on Catherine Street in the city’s Georgian quarter had been subject to the vacant site levy for 2020, 2021 and 2022 based on a €500,000 valuation determined in 2019. A fresh valuation three years later estimated the 0.2-hectare site had doubled in value. The site has been the subject of planning applications dating to 2004. Last May, the local authority approved a plan for the development of 76 apartments. Under the plans, numbers 35 and 37 Catherine Street, which are protected structures, would be refurbished and converted into apartments, while other buildings would be demolished.Thanos had in 2020 secured permission to build offices and 48 apartments, while previous owners secured approval in 2006 and 2008 for a mix of retail, office and residential units. A 2004 bid for permission to demolish number 34-36 Catherine Street to make way for apartments was refused on architectural heritage grounds. In 2019, An Coimisiún Pleanála, under its previous title, allowed Limerick City and County Council to compulsorily acquire the site. It noted the stretch of buildings had reached a “neglected, unsightly and objectionable condition” that detracted from the neighbourhood. Thanos challenged the decision in the High Court in 2020. The case was adjourned generally in March 2020 with no further court appearances.