Builders plan new Cappagh residential development

One of Galway’s biggest property development companies is determined to get back building houses – fresh plans have been lodged for 18 new homes on a site adjacent to Knocknacarra Community Centre.

Kenny Developments has sought permission for the construction of 18 houses on the 1.65 acre site between the Lios Mór estate on the Cappagh Road and the entrance roadway to the park itself.

The plans are for 14 semi-detached (four-bed) two-and-a-half storey houses; three two-and-a-half storey detached houses (four-bed) and a five-bed house that is part two-and-a-half storey and part two-storey, along with parking for 36 cars.

According to the application: “The treatment of the end elevations of the units facing either onto Cappagh Road or the access road into the Cappagh Park have been carefully considered so that large bay windows and stone-faced walls look out onto the public areas.

“The shared boundary with the public park is proposed to be retained with railing on top of the existing stone walls, where required along the private rear gardens.

“The development includes private houses in a mix of semi-detached and detached large units as an appropriate response to the surrounding context which includes one-off houses along Cappagh Road and estate houses in the adjacent Lios Mór development.

“All units are generously sized and are capable of supporting long-term occupation. All units have well-proportioned rooms with generous private gardens at the rear,” the application reads.

A decision on the application is due in the middle of June.

Last year, a separate yet similar application for the same site by Kennys was deemed to be withdrawn, as the developers did not respond to a Council request for further information.

Planners sent the developers back to the drawing board, pointing out that some of the site is zoned for Recreation and Amenity use, which should be omitted.

They had also sought clarification on whether Kennys still own a 3.4 acre site to the north, where they were previously refused permission for 48 new houses and apartments.

Two objections were lodged to the application by individual residents on the Cappagh Road, on the grounds that the house types proposed are not compatible with the existing streetscape; that the sewerage network would not be able to cope and that it would increase traffic congestion.

A previous application on a neighbouring site by Model Investment Partnership – which has common directors with Kenny Developments – was rejected by city planners in 2011 on the grounds that it was premature because a potential route for the link from the Western Distributor Road to the proposed Galway City Bypass had not been identified at that stage.