This article is from page 19 of the 2007-12-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 19 JPG
A DUBLIN-BASED housing asso- ciation has scaled back its plans for an apartment complex in Ennis town centre in order to overcome local council and resident concerns.
Last September, Ennis Town Coun- cil refused planning permission to Cluid Housing Association for a five storey apartment block adjacent to Ennis Tennis and Badminton Club.
The proposal involved plans to con- struct 21 one bedroom apartments and six two bedroom apartments.
However, Cluid Association 1s now seeking permission to construct three and four storey buildings in the erounds of Waterville House to ac- commodate 14 one bedroom apart- ments and three two bedroom apart- ments.
The housing association is also seeking planning permission for two one-bedroom apartments within Wa- terville House.
The Ennis Tennis and Badminton Club lodged a strident objection to the previous scheme pointing out that “with a large junior membership, the club has rigorous child protection schemes. Consequently, units with views overlooking children at play is of serious concern to all members”.
In a subsequent refusal, the council stated that due to the scale, massing, height and excessive site coverage
would result 1n over-development of the restricted site.
The council concluded that the pro- posal would compete visually with the Cornmarket building and Water- ville House, would detract from the character for the setting of Water- ville House and would fail to respect its context and contravene the Ennis and Environs Development Plan.
The council also refused planning permission after ruling that the de- velopment would result in over-look- ing and over-shadowing of adjacent residential buildings and would seri- ously injure the amenities of prop- erty in the vicinity.
“The proposed development there- fore would materially contravene a policy of the Ennis and Environs Development Plan 2003 and the zon- ing objective for the area which 1s to protect residential amenity.”
The council also refused planning due to the proposal’s “layout and den- sity and consequent lack of private Open space to serve the residential units would result in a sub-standard form of development which would seriously injure the amenity of future occupants. The council found that inadequate on-site parking would re- sult in over-development of the site. Rather than appealing the decision to An Bord Pleanala, Cluid Housing Assocation lodged revised plans to overcome the council’s concerns.