170-unit residential plan on outskirts of Galway City refused planning by An Bord Pleanála

An Bord Pleanála has refused planning permission for the development of 170 homes in the village of Castlegar, on the outskirts of Galway City, over several reasons including, as the inspectors said, the project would not create “a people-friendly environment”.

The plan was lodged by Lock House Developments in August 2022 and included the development of 170 residential units on Bóthar na Chóiste, in Castlegar, just outside Galway city.

In particular, the development consisted of a total of 84 two-storey houses, 48 duplex units, one apartment block comprising of 17 apartments, and a second apartment block comprising of 21 apartments.

The area would also have had pedestrian, cyclist, and vehicular links throughout the development, and pedestrian and cyclist links to the adjacent Greenway route.

Shared communal and private open space, site landscaping and public lighting, resident and visitor parking including electric vehicle charging points, bicycle parking spaces, were also planned.

However, An Bord Pleanála has refused the planning permission due to a number of reasons, as the inspectors explained the project would not create a “people-friendly environment”.

An Bord Pleanála explained: “Having regard to the design and layout of the proposed development, including a central shared space that would be dominated by an array of hard surfaces with limited soft landscaping and excessively-wide home zones, the limited passive surveillance and weak urban edge onto Bóthar an Chóiste, the unbalanced distribution of fully functional open spaces, and the absence of proposals to provide a greenway along the western boundary of the site, the proposed development would not be conducive to creating a people-friendly environment, would not feature sufficient quality, functional, recreational and amenity space and facilities to conveniently serve the public and communal open space needs of future residents of the development, would fail to provide a sufficiently appropriate active frontage addressing the public road and would fail to ensure sufficient permeability through the development.”

They added that the development would be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area: “Accordingly, the design and layout of the proposed development would be contrary to the standards set out in the Design Manual for Road and Streets issued by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government in March 2019, and would be contrary to the principles advocated in the Sustainable Residential Development and Compact Settlement Guidelines for Planning Authorities, would be contrary to the communal amenity space provisions in the Sustainable Urban Housing: Design Standards for New Apartments, Guidelines for Planning Authorities issued by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government in December 2023 and would fail to comprehensively provide for the ‘RA Greenway’ specific objective of the Galway City Development Plan 2023-2029.”

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