Decision due by next week on plans for 124 new homes for Birr

Offaly County Council is due to make a decision by next week on two planning applications which would see 124 new homes being built in Birr.

The first application was submitted by Eoin Garry for 66 homes in the Railway Road, Townspark and Seffin areas, 46 of which would be build-to-rent apartments in four separate blocks.

Another 20 homes - a mix of three and four bed detached and semi-detached homes - and a new distributor road are also planned as part of the project.

The second planning application is for 58 new homes in the existing residential developments at Macregol Páirc and Corr na Meala, which are also in the Townspark and Seffin townlands.

The developers of this project, Beech Avenue Properties Ltd, have sought planning permission for 58 homes on a 3.47 hectare site, which would be a mix of housing types, including ten one/ two bed terraced bungalows in three blocks; twelve two bed two-storey terraced blocks and 14 two-storey four bed semi-detached houses.

A section of a new distributor road, pathways and a cycle track with parking, lighting, public open space and site development works would complete the development.

Both applications were submitted to the planning authority in April of this year, and further information requests on various aspects of the proposed housing developments were requested by the council in June.

In relation to the proposed development of 58 new homes by Beech Avenue Properties Ltd., Offaly County Council requested further information from the applicants in June on a number of aspects of their plans, and requested that the section of the Distributor Road Network which runs through the site should be “fully completed before construction begins on any housing” so as to faciitate construction traffic.

The council said it considered that all construction traffic should access the site “via the proposed distributor road.”

The applicants were asked to submit a Road Safety Audit for the extent of the Birr Distributor Road within the site to include junctions to residential developments, boundary treatments and interaction with pedestrians/cyclists, and they were also asked to submit a Traffic and Transport Assessment.

Among the other issues addressed in the further information request were drainage; sewer; housing density; landscape and boundary treatment; the lack of accessible parking spaces within the shared parking areas of the developments and the dimensions of the proposed car parking spaces.

The further information request was complied with on September 23 last.

The proposed development of 66 new homes in Birr by Eoin Garry was also the subject of a further information request in June, in which the developer was requested to submit a revised proposal to address concerns over the layout of some of the proposed apartments, which the council said would feature “blank gables that are visible from the public roads.”

The developer was also asked to submit a revised Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment taking into account the impact that the proposed housing development would have on the “historic landscape demesne and on the former Moor Park House” and the council stipulated that the mature hawthorn trees which are located adjacent to the Ice House “must be retained” and asked for a revised Green Infrastructure Plan and a landscape plan to address this issue.

The further information request said it was “not clear” from the documents submitted how the applicant would access the lands proposed for development, and noted that the land to the south of the proposed distributor road “appears to be landlocked” and they requested the submission of written consent from landowners in the vicinity of the project.

In relation to both of the housing projects proposed for Birr, Offaly County Council noted in the further information request to both developers, Eoin Garry and Beech Avenue Properties Ltd, that the two planning applications proposed a total of 154 dwellings in conjoined housing developments.

They requested that a childcare analysis indicating that a childcare facility is not necessary be submitted to the planning authority, with an accompanying letter from the Offaly County Childcare Committee. In the absence of this request being complied with, they were asked to submit proposals for a childcare facility for the “totality of housing” proposed under the two separate planning applications.

The further information request to the planning application submitted by Eoin Garry for 66 new homes was complied with on September 20.

Offaly County Council is due to make a decision on both planning applications by October 27.