Galway City Council has rejected plans to convert a former driving driving range in Salthill to a leisure and wellness centre.
Clearwater Ventures Ltd had submitted plans to the city council to convert the building south of the caravan park
The new leisure and wellness centre was to include gym and yoga facilities, as well as a new café and retail space.
Other construction work would have involved enclosing the driving range bays with windows and doors, and building an external sauna and decking.
The city council refused planning permission for two reasons, the land zoning, and its potential impact on a greenway/cycle network.
The city council said that the land in question is zoned RA, which is “primarily for outdoor recreation”, and would therefore contravene the city development plan if approval was granted.
The refusal also said that the developer had not shown that the operation of the new leisure centre, including traffic movement, wouldn’t prejudice the objective of a greenway/cycle network in the development plan.
Clearwater Ventures had said that the plans were a vast improvement over the current state of the site.
Galway Cycling Campaign submitted an observation saying that it did not object in principle, but raised concerns about sightlines at the entrance to the site.
They also said that the council should request a Road Safety Audit, and that the plans should have included bicycle parking, and a dedicated pedestrian gate.
