Developer’s bid to retain scale of urban quarter

The developers of the new urban quarter behind Ceannt Station have appealed to An Bord Pleanála to allow its original larger design to go ahead instead of the scaled-back version approved by city planners.

Developer Gerry Barrett’s team behind Augustine Hill have appealed the omission of two residential blocks and reduction of storeys from other blocks from the project on an eight-acre brownfield site which reclaims derelict buildings.

While granting the overall development, Galway City Council ordered the planned towers be removed, finding them of excessive height scale and mass, along with their “unsatisfactory interrelationship with the balance of the development proposal and their extreme proximity to Forthill Cemetery”.

The planners determined they “cannot assimilate into the scheme and will have a detrimental impact on adjoining heritage assets, key views and the character of Galway’s townscape”.

Now Mr Barrett’s consultants have asked to Board to assess the original design, which, they say, took into account all aspects of views, space and how they sat within the site footprint.

The €320 million development as granted permission boasts a 130-bed hotel, 229 apartments across nine blocks, six-screen cinema, restaurants, retail units and rooftop community garden.

It involves the creation of 11 new pedestrianised streets with four public plazas.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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