Green light for hotel and €80m development

A NEW hotel has been earmarked for one of the country’s fastest-growing satellite towns, while an €80 million housing project is on the cards for one of Cork’s most secluded villages.

The hotel is to be built in Ballincollig while the 265-unit housing scheme has been approved for Glounthaune.

Planners in Cork’s County Hall, meanwhile, have received a number of significant applications in recent days on proposed projects from Banteer to Bandon.

After a rather quiet start to the year compared to 2006, things began to heat up during the past week.

Developers Paraic O’Donoghue and Michael Murray have got the green light for the 122-bed hotel at Innishmore, Ballincollig West. The hotel will be a split four/five-storey building and will feature a conference centre, spa, health centre, swimming pool, bar, restaurant and meeting rooms. The developers have also been given permission to tag on three commercial units and 25 apartments.

O’Mahony Developments are to build the €80m project in Glounthaune.

The company plans a mixed scheme comprising of 83 apartments, 72 duplexes, 59 semi-detached houses, 22 terraced homes and 20 detached houses in the townland of Killahora. Five local play areas and a crèche are also part of the project.

Meanwhile, planning officials have received an application from John Murphy Construction for 86 homes in Banteer, north Cork.

The company proposes to build 42 three-bed semi-detached houses, 20 townhouses and 24 detached homes. Also included in the proposal are five play areas.

Elsewhere, developer Pat O’Farrell is eyeing Mitchelstown for 70 homes. He has lodged plans for a mixed development of detached, semi-detached and terraced houses at Cork Road, Brigown.

Mallow could also be in line for a new hotel if planning officials approve an application lodged by Jimnoe Ltd. The company is proposing a 54-bed hotel with function rooms at Quartertown Upper near Barry’s Cash & Carry.

A few miles west of the town, at the village of Drommahane, Roche Design & Build is seeking the go-ahead for 100 houses, four apartments and a crèche, while developers Moira Fitzgerald and Michael Quirke want to build 50 houses at Bridgeland East, Rathcormac.

Meanwhile, An Bord Pleanála has decided to ignore its inspector’s advice and has granted permission for 30 houses at Curryclogh, Bandon.

Inspector Derek Daly said he felt the project would affect the visual landscape of the area. However, the board overruled him and granted permission, albeit with revised conditions.

Cork County Council’s own plans to upgrade the water supply in the Glenville area, which includes compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) for land, will be the subject of a Bord Pleanála oral hearing. The hearing is scheduled to take place in the Hibernian Hotel, Mallow this morning.

Irish Examiner

Regular objector has own house plan turned down

A KERRY man who has admitted he objects “all the time” to one-off houses and developments in scenic and conservation areas in the county has himself been turned down for a single rural house in an amenity area.

Michael J Horgan, Upper Cloonbeg, Tralee, had appealed to An Bord Pleanala against Kerry County Council’s decision to refuse him permission for a bungalow and septic tank at his site at Gortdromakiery, Muckross, Killarney.

The area, designated a secondary special amenity rural landscape in the county development plan, is near a river and is just outside the Special Area of Conservation of Lough Guitane, the primary water source for Kerry.

Mr Horgan, who is retired, said he wants the house in Killarney because he now spends four days a week there, walks in the national park and has a boat at Ross Castle. He had been granted planning permission previously for a two-storey house on the site which he has owned since the late 1990s. The council said the house would interfere with an essentially unspoilt area.

The planning application to the county council last March - with the newspaper notice appearing in Irish - was met with an avalanche of letters objecting to Mr Horgan’s proposal. Some of the dozen or so people objecting to the application raised concerns about traffic, pollution, zoning, proximity to a river and a lake, ribbon development and archaeology.

It was pointed out that Mr Horgan regularly objected to such housing for others. One letter said he had “a long established history of objections to one-off housing applications in rural areas.”

Mr Horgan claimed in his appeal that many of those objecting were persons or friends of persons whose developments he objected to previously, both personally and as chairman of Rivers and Lakes of Killarney Conservation Association.

He also said he had been involved in many planning applications and appeals - most of his appeals were upheld by An Bord Pleanala - but he objected to being branded a serial objector by county councillors who last year wanted to establish a register of such objectors.

Mr Horgan said on Monday that he had “never stopped” objecting to developments and would continue to do so, because of his interest in preserving the environment and scenery of Kerry.

On at least one occasion he hired a private investigator to gather information on an unsuitable development, and has highlighted pollution near the famous Torc Waterfall, as well as the treatment of effluent at the Victorian Dinis Cottage in Killarney National Park.

He has also been instrumental in ensuring information kiosk would now have to apply for planning permission as a retail outlet, as it had changed its emphasis.

Mr Horgan, who has a keen interest in angling as well as the outdoors and planning matters, said he would be studying An Bord Pleanala’s decision carefully.

His proposed house was to be located in an area which already had a number of houses.

“I had planning permission there already, but I let it run out,” he said.

An Bord Pleanala’s planning inspector, Mairead Kenny, said she did not consider that the pursuit of recreational activities by a retired person on a four-day a week basis constitutes a rural generated demand for a dwelling house.

“The development which is sited within an area which is subject of considerable development pressure, is contrary to the sustainable rural housing guidelines and would be unacceptable from the point of view of proposals for wastewater treatment and result in a traffic hazard,” Ms Kenny said, advising refusal.

The board upheld its inspector’s recommendation saying it considered that the proposed development would endanger public safety by reason of traffic hazard and it would constitute “excessive density of development by virtue of its impact on the landscape and would give rise to an extension of linear development into a substantially unspoiled open area which would interfere with the character of the landscape, designated as Secondary Special Amenity in the current development plan for the area”

The proposed development would, therefore, be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area, the board ruled.

Development plan for Cork green belt

A new roundabout and proposed developments in the green belt alongside the Cork-Bandon road will not undermine the area's special zoning, the manager of Cork County Council, Maurice Moloney, has told The Irish Times.

The new roundabout at Garranedarragh, Bishopstown, is to be paid for by Castlelands Construction, a Cork-based development company owned by John Barry.

The company will gain access to nine hectares (22 acres) of land zoned for housing which it owns and which adjoins the green belt.

Permission granted in 2005 by the council for this roundabout, following an application from the housing land's then owners, Rosbridge Properties, was overturned by An Bord Pleanala in December 2005.

Senior planner at the council Nicholas Mansergh had objected to permission for the roundabout, as he felt its main function would be to open up green belt land for development.

Christopher Gethin, an inspector from An Bord Pleanala, having reviewed the issue, reported that the principal issue was "the harm which would arise from the proposed development in terms of its effect on the green belt".

A new private hospital, an Enable Ireland facility and a park- and-ride facility, which are to be built in the green belt, are to be serviced by the new roundabout. However the inspector was of the view that the private hospital and park-and-ride developments should be located elsewhere.

Mr Gethin quoted Mr Mansergh's view that "building roads and sewers deep into previously inaccessible lands close to the edge of the city would be the most effective way of subverting" the green belt.

"It is my opinion that the appearance and the function of the green belt in this area is of outstanding importance, and the need to resist the enabling role of the roundabout in facilitating these damaging developments, is correspondingly important," Mr Gethin reported. An Bord Pleanála agreed and refused permission.

Mr Moloney told The Irish Times that Castlelands Construction contacted the council in early 2006. He and the county engineer met executives of Castlelands. The executives explained that Castlelands now controlled all the land that would be affected by the roundabout.

"They said 'we control the land and can we, in partnership with the council, look at it as a public and private project, a mix?'."

The council then proceeded by way of a part 8 procedure. This mechanism can be used when a proposed development "is by a local authority or on behalf of a local authority", Mr Moloney said. An aspect of the procedure is that once the permission is granted by the elected members of the authority, it cannot be appealed to An Bord Pleanála.

Castlelands's proposal to the council involved it paying for the roundabout and donating for the park-and-ride facility. The offer made it possible for the council to use the part 8 procedure because control of the land to be affected is needed if the procedure is to be used. The new roundabout will be built on public and privately held land.

Mr Moloney said the proposed project was publicised and then voted on and approved by the elected members in July. "The reality here is that a number of public and private concerns were going to merge and benefit."

He said it was not the case that nothing could be developed on green belt land. The Cork development plan allows for hotels and care institutions to be built on green belt land, as long as the character of the green belt was maintained, he said.

Mr Moloney said the "corporate view" within the council on the roundabout proposal was different to that of Mr Mansergh.

"The layout and development of these projects will mitigate against further development of the green belt."

He said the council has successfully resisted development of green belt land.

The hospital proposal comes from SMCMC Ltd, a company associated with James and Philip Sheehan, who are also involved in private hospital projects in Dublin and Galway.