Galway County Council has refused planning permission for a housing project in Briarhill despite the support of the local school.
Martin Coyne sought planning permission for a 43 unit housing estate with a mix of houses and apartments at Breanloughan, Briarhill.
The first stage of the development would have consisted of the demolition of an existing house and outbuildings on the site.
In their place it was proposed to build 3 four-bed, two storey, detached houses, 22 four-bed, two storey semi-detached units and 6 three-bed, two storey, semi-detached units.
A two storey apartment building was also in the plans, which would have contained 2 three-bed apartments, 6 two-bed apartments, and 4 one-bed apartments.
The new estate would have been accessed off the R339 Monivea road and included a total of 74 car parking spaces along with 12 bicycle spaces at the apartment building.
The Board of Management of Briarhill school wrote in support of the housing plans, noting that “we have a number of families in the school who are homeless at the moment and we strongly support the construction of new homes in and around Galway city”.
The BOM’s submission also praised the developer, Martin Coyne, for past work improving the side road to the school to allow children safe access after the school expanded in 2006/7.
One other submission supporting the project was made by a local landowner who owns property near to that which was to be developed in this project.
In refusing planning permission the county council cited seven main reasons.
Several concerns were raised about the design of the project including the general layout, car parking deficiencies, an unsatisfactory provision of public open space, and issues with the building typologies.
The council also noted that neither a Road Safety Audit nor a bat survey were included in this application.
And it was also said that these lands were not zoned for residential development, and that the current public sewage system in the Briarhill area was not equipped to handle the excess this estate would bring.
