Councillors vote down ‘questionable’ rezoning bid for prime site

Councillors have agreed that a multi-storey car park opposite one of Galway City’s most iconic buildings would do little to contribute to the cityscape, and indeed go against their own strategy to tackle traffic gridlock.

Royal Horizon Ltd – whose directors are Paul Pugh and Geoff Cawley – had made a submission to the Draft City Development Plan in relation to the 1.26 acres stretching across the existing car park on Market Street and, potentially, the adjoining Connacht Tribune site.

It sought for the area to be rezoned from CC (City Centre uses) to CI (Enterprise, Light Industry, and Commercial sses) “to reflect its current use as a car park, or alternatively to provide specific objective to facilitate a car park and food market on site.”

However, the Council’s Chief Executive, Brendan McGrath, had recommended no change as the rezoning would be contrary to the existing retail strategy.

His report stated: “It is ideally suited for CC land uses and represents sustainable use of this city centre site . . . there is a demand for larger retail floor space formats that could occupy this site. The proposed car parking would be contrary to the Galway Transport Strategy.”

Senior Executive Planner, Helen Coleman, described this as a key city centre site.

“We don’t have that many significant sites in the city centre, and we don’t feel that CI-zoning would reflect the optimum use,” she said.

“It is downzoning of a city zone for a lesser usage and density, and the logic would have to be questioned. This site has significant permission, valid until 2018, for a well-designed development by architects responsible for a college extension and other high quality buildings.

“The car park was always meant to be temporary, and a high rise car park would be completely unsustainable at this location.”

For more on the rezoning submission, see this week’s Galway City Tribune