Social housing exemption granted for new hotel site
THE PROPOSAL to develop a major new hotel complex on the quay in Wexford has moved a step forward after Wexford County Council granted an exemption from social housing provision to the applicants of the project.
Under the Planning and Development Act 2000 there is an obligation, where developments will include 10 or more residential units, that a percentage of them must be for social housing.
However, the proposal for the quay in Wexford includes provision for nine residential units and as a result it’s an exempted development with regard to the social housing aspect.
The development, for which the application was lodged with the local authority by Coant Entertainments Ltd., is being designed by Stephen Carr Architects and makes provision to develop an eight-storey over double basement mixed use development accommodating a hotel fronting onto Commercial Quay.
The hotel will have 135 bedrooms with associated balconies to rooms overlooking Commercial Quay and Charlotte Street. There will also be hotel suites and nine two-bedroom apartments across a number of levels.
Provision is also made in the application for 155 car parking spaces and there will be a ramped entrance to the basement from the quay.
Speaking to this newspaper Wexford County Council’s Communications Officer, David Minogue, confirmed that the development is exempt from the social housing requirement because it makes provision for nine residential units.
‘We welcome the proposal to develop the site and look forward to working with the owners to develop it if and when permission is granted,’ he said.
It’s expected that a decision on the proposal won’t be made until mid-Summer.