Appeals board upholds refusal of plan for former Ballincollig Gaelscoil site

UNCERTAINTY still surrounds the future of the former Gaelscoil Uí Ríordáin campus in Ballincollig after a decision by Council planners to not grant permission for a residential development on the site was upheld by An Bord Pleanála.

In March of this year the Tuath Housing Association lodged an application seeking permission to demolish the 14-classroom former school building, and the removal of the roadside boundary wall at the Coolroe site.

The plan was to replace the structure with a four-story apartment building containing 24 apartments, comprised of four single bed units, 15 two-bed units and five three-bed units.

The proposal also made provision for a new entrance to the site from the Inniscarra Road to an ‘under-croft’ car parking area which will also incorporate ancillary storage and utility facilities.

The previous month a similar application was lodged with the authority under the name of Tango View Ltd. However, this was deemed to be incomplete by officials.

That was the third application made within the past three years for a residential development on the site, which has been idle since 2012, with the previous two lodged in the name of PSA Project Management Ltd.

The first of these, lodged in July of 2016, sought a change of use for the 1,074sq-metre building from educational to residential use for a 19 one- and two-bed unit development arranged over three storeys.

The plan was shot down by council planners who ruled that its scale, density and layout would constitute “over development” of the site. They also ruled it would be a “serious traffic hazard” and would, by reason of over looking, be “seriously injurious to the residential amenities of the adjoining properties”.

Their decision was upheld on appeal by An Bord Pleanála.

The second PSA application, lodged in May 2017, was slightly amended from its predecessor to include 14 one- and two-bed apartments within the renovated and extended two-storey school building.

That was also shot down, with planners citing the same reasons for refusal as the previous application.

A number of submissions had been lodged with the Council in relation to the Tuath application addressing a variety of issues, including the scale and density of the proposed development, the extra traffic it would generate on the Inniscarra Road and that it would exacerbate existing parking problems in the area caused by the over flow of vehicles from the nearby Regional Park.

Council planners subsequently refused permission saying it would “constitute over development of the Site’, would be “serious injurious to the residential amenities of adjoining properties” and would endanger public safety “by reason of a serious traffic hazard” to the surrounding area as it did not contain enough on site parking.

Tuath appealed the decision to An Bord Pleanála, which upheld the Council’s reasoning for refusing the development.