Minor changes to media campus are suggested
CATHAOIRLEACH of Greystones Municipal District Derek Mitchell has welcomed plans for a new Greystones Media Campus but in his submission has asked for minor improvements.
‘With only 14 per cent employed locally, this should address a major weakness in the infrastructure of the town,’ he said.
‘I have asked that a number of details of this large development should be improved.’
Cllr Mitchell said that there was a walkway across the site.
‘I want to see a Greenway along the Three Trout Stream to Delgany eventually and am asking for a path to be left between this development and the plastic factory to allow this,’ he said.
‘I have also asked for better screening of the Woodlands apartments from the large studio buildings and better access for cycling and walking to the site from the Dart.’
The Burnaby Residents Association, in their submission, urged the council not to be ‘dazzled’ by the development, given the possibility of film and media production in the town, but to ensure that the planning assessment applied to the development is as rigorous as might normally be the case for a commercial building.
While they welcome the proposed development in principal, they said that the development should be a positive planning gain to the area, ‘not just in terms of the generation of employment but also in the context of the impact of the development on the local community in terms of visual impact, traffic generation, noise and nuisance abatement’.
They said also that traffic generated by the development must be addressed, and called for the preservation of mature trees on the site.
‘ The biggest potential impacts on local residents will be in the form of noise and light pollution,’ wrote the residents association, calling for conditions to address that.
An application has been made to Wicklow County Council by Greystones Media Campus Ltd for 15 buildings on the 18-hectare IDA site, encompassing 73,000 square metres of film studios and support buildings.
The site will include four entrances, 722 car spaces and 276 bike spaces, the area fronting Mill Road being for higher quality buildings not more than 3 stories high.
The proposal hopes to deliver up to 1,200 new jobs in the film, media and broadcasting sectors.
It has the potential to lead to in the region of up to 300 full time positions in other sectors of the Irish economy through knock-on impacts. It is also estimated that up to 580 jobs could be created during the construction phase.
A decision is due by August 28.