This article is from page 17 of the 2007-08-21 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 17 JPG
PLANS for reputedly the county’s most environmentally friendly hous- ing scheme have been thrown out by An Bord Pleanala.
This follows the planning board over-turning Clare County Council’s decision to part-grant planning to ar- chitect, Tom Byrne for the proposal and refuse the plan outright.
Residents in Kilkee and appli- cant, Mr Byrne had both appealed the council’s decision to An Bord
Pleanala.
Mr Byrne was seeking planning for the erection of six houses on a site formerly known as Walton’s Quarry and the council granted planning for three, lowering the height of the homes granted planning.
In all, four third-party appeals were lodged against the decision, along with Mr Byrne appealing.
The board’s inspector recom- mended that planning be refused on a number of grounds. He stated “that the proposed development would be
contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area, having regard to design and scale of the residential scheme, the alterations to site levels which are necessary to facilitate the development, the result- ant high visibility of the develop- ment, open space arrangements and proposed landscaping of the site”. The inspector also stated that the board “is not satisfied that the pro- posed development can be carried out as proposed without adversely affecting the visual amenity, residen-
tial amenity and integrity of adjoin- ing property and lands, identified as a Architectural Conservation Area in the Kilkee Local Area Plan in the West Clare Local Area Plan”’.
The inspector also stated that the board were dissatisfied that construc- tion of the proposed development could occur without resultant nega- tive consequences for the ecologi- cal system based around the nearby pools to the west of the site.
In its order, the appeals board stat- ed, “Having regard to the highly vis-
ible nature of the site, the proposal to raise ground levels up to seven metres and the nature, scale and de- sign of the residential units built on fill, it is considered that the proposed development would be visually ob- trusive and incongruous and would adversely affect the visual amenity, residential amenity and integrity of adjoining property and lands, iden- tified as an Architectural Conserva- tion Area in the Kilkee Local Area Plan, as set out in the West Clare Lo- cal Area Plan, 2003.”