Plans for the construction of a 46 home housing estate on the outskirts of Loughrea have been rejected by the due to its density, and a lack of information provided by the developer.
Galway County Council refused approval for Bilberrylane Ltd for the construction of a residential estate on a site off the Caheronaun Park Road, bordering the N65.
The council gave six reasons for refusing planning permission for the estate, citing a mixture of design, road safety, and infrastructure reasons.
The estate would have consisted of 6 two-bedroom, terraced houses; 4 three-bedroom end terrace houses; 18 one-bedroom, duplex units; and 18 two-bedroom duplex units.
The proposed location of the housing estate was a greenfield site south of the N65, with vehicular access off the Caheronaun Park Road.
“The proposed houses are to be laid out along the south, east and partially along the western boundary thereby creating a large public open space for houses to overlook,” the application stated.
“It is considered an important design principle that all houses are outward looking, and which overlook the public open space, thereby creating an element of passive surveillance but also outward looking to address and animate the public road”.
Parking at the estate would have been via 65 car parking spaces of “communal shared parking” located in front of the houses.
The council said that the density of the proposed development was too high for a site of this size located on the outskirts of Loughrea, and that the plans included too many apartment type homes.
It was also noted that no road safety audit or traffic and traffic and transport assessment had been carried out which, combined with the lack of footpaths, could pose a road safety hazard.
One submission had been received from Transport Infrastructure Ireland, raising concerns about the frontage of the development onto a main road, and the lack of a TTA with the application.
