CITY TRIBUNE
Cyclists seek redesign of Ardaun suburb plan
Cycling campaigners have urged Galway City Council to abandon half of the planned urban village of Ardaun and completely redesign roads in the other part or risk creating yet another “inherently car dependent and unsustainable” suburb.
In one of 14 submissions to planners on the material alterations in the draft Ardaun Local Area Plan (LAP), Shane Foran of the Galway Cycling Campaign pulls no punches in lambasting the design, saying it “defies belief”.
The plan, which will be the planning blueprint for the area of major city growth until 2024, is located on the east side of the city on a largely greenfield site of 164 hectares (405 acres) while adjacent to most of the big employers in Parkmore, Ballybrit and near the Galway Clinic and Merlin Park Hospital.
With Galway City projected to grow to 96,700 people by 2022, the plan estimates that Ardaun could accommodate over 8,000 of this population target. The first phase, Ardaun South, is projected to have 1,098 units and support an estimated population of 2,987.
It aims to create a new community and business district within the city, “incorporating sustainable densities underpinned by the accommodation of sustainable transport modes, supporting facilities and services”.
“A key role and function of Ardaun, as identified in the city plan, is to strategically rebalance settlement patterns in the city and to facilitate increased co-location of living and working areas within the city, thereby minimising travel demand and providing for urban consolidation.”
However, the entire design is flawed and completely dominated by car-centric thinking, insists Mr Foran.
“The nature of the roads surrounding the site is incompatible with the relevant guidance such as the National Cycle Policy Framework, the Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets and the NTA [National Transport Authority] Permeability Best Practice Guide.
“As such in its current form this location at Ardaun is not suitable for residential development, unless significant remedial action is taken, the local area plan should be set aside in favour of finding a more suitable location.”
Mr Foran states that proposed access in and out of Ardaun through roundabouts and slip roads is wholly incompatible with residential development.
“The proposed integrated sustainable urban community has been cut in two. The southern portion of the Ardaun lands have now been cut off by what could be best characterised as a ring of steel formed by the motorway and the dual carriageways.”
He notes that the bus corridor “through Merlin Park to Park to Eastern bypass at proposed M6 link via new slip road” is stated as also for use by cyclists. Yet it is to join the N6 dual carriageway via slip roads at the Coolagh Roundabout that marks the end of the M6.
“The idea that cyclists trying to access or leave Ardaun would be required to merge across traffic and use slip roads simply defies belief,” he exclaims.
“It is hard to see how the southern section of Ardaun could be viably integrated into the wider city or even the
adjacent communities of Roscam, Doughska and Briarhill/Coolough. The nature of the surrounding roads infrastructure creates a location where motorist travel will be imposed for most who wish to travel outside of south Ardaun.
“Without a radical revision of the adjacent roads, the best option may be to abandon the southern section of Ardaun as a location for development and focus on other areas of the city,” said the cycling campaigner.
The draft Ardaun LAP states that it is anticipated that the area will have an estimated population of 9,500. However, in the material alteration the population is revised, predicting to grow to 12,621.
The Department of Education & Skills says in that case instead of reserving sites for two primary schools and two secondary schools, the plan should set aside room for an additional 16 classroom school in the area to meet this extra projected growth and cater for 1,515 school-going primary school children.
Pale Horizon, the owner of a land bank of 40.7 hectares (100 acres) in South Ardaun – headed up by Galway developers Tim Lee McDonagh, Ronan Daly and Paul Kelly – welcomed changes to the rezoning over two hectares of land – changing one parcel under overhead powerlines from residential to recreational and the second plot to the east of land earmarked for community and educational use to residential.
The developers also welcomed the change to increase from 70% to 80% the amount of land in the urban village centre zoning that can be dedicated to residential use.
Both the TII (Transport Infrastructure Ireland) and the NTA (National Transport Authority) called on the Council to incorporate an ‘area based transport assessment’ into the plan once it was completed, revising it later if necessary.
Senior planner in Galway City Council Caroline Phelan said the local authority was currently preparing a report summarising the observations and outlining the planners’ recommendations.
The final decision on the plan rests with councillors, who will vote on its adoption or rejection at the April 9 meeting.
“The only area open for consideration now are the material alterations – the rest of the plan has been deemed acceptable and cannot be revisited in April,” remarked Ms Phelan.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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