This article is from page 17 of the 2007-04-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 17 JPG
THE Catholic Church is set to be- come one of the main local players in property development and specu- lation in the county if its ambitious rezoning plans are realised.
As part of the review of the Ennis and Environs Development Plan, the Killaloe Diocesan Trust has made submissions in relation to six sepa- rate properties it owns in Ennis.
If the diocese is successful in its plans, it will add millions of euro onto the value of its various land
holdings.
The most ambitious proposal re- lates to the site of the Ennis resi- dence of the Bishop of Killaloe.
The trust is seeking to have the eight-acre site rezoned from ‘other Settlement land’, which allows lm- ited development, to ‘mixed use — residential, commercial and retail’ and retain the ‘open space’ section.
In the planner’s response, it points out that the site is an Architectural Conservation Area (ACA) and the dwelling, Westbourne House, is a protected structure.
With the proposed relocation of Ennis National School and the con- sequent rezoning last year of 85 acres of diocesan-owned land, the diocese stands to realise €30 mil- lion.
In its submission, the Diocesan Trust has requested the council to retain the rezoning of the site at Ashline.
The trust has also requested the council to rezone lands at Station Road, containing the Old Burren cinema, the Maria Assumpta Hall, the Scout Hall and some open space
in the vicinity of the Cathedral to one of the council’s strategic *Pro- posal Sites’. The land is already Zoned community and town centre and the Diocesan Trust is seeking that the ‘Proposal Site’ be zoned to include community, office and com- mercial uses.
The trust is also seeking that the site at Cloughleigh Primary School be rezoned from community to another ‘Proposal Site’ to include community, office and commercial tone
In response to the rezoning re-
quests, the council states that the land at Station Road, including the Scout Hall and the Maria Assumpta Hall, is within the town centre boundary and the proposed uses are appropriate to town centre zoning.
In relation to the Cloughleigh Pri- mary School site, the council’s plan- ners state that “although land in the Western Residential Development Area is earmarked for a new school, in reviewing the plan, it may be ap- propriate to consider whether the community use of the site should be KoA eB UOLore Mae