A planning application for more than 100 homes in Bearna will be made later this month directly to An Bord Pleanála under new fast-tracking legislation – understood to be the first of its kind outside Dublin.
If approved, the development on the 18-acre site on the Bearna-Moycullen road would create up to 100 jobs during construction. Galway-based Burkeway Homes will be making the application under the new ‘Strategic Housing Development’ regulations which came into effect on July 3. It is understood that just one other such application has been made in the country to date.
The legislation – drawn up last year by the then Housing Minister Simon Coveney in a bid to tackle the housing crisis – can be used by a developer planning 100 or more houses or for student accommodation with more than 200 bed spaces (where the land is appropriately zoned).
They must first hold pre-consultation meetings with their local planning authority, then with An Bord Pleanála and then submit the application directly to the Board. By that stage, the Board will have received the opinion of the local authority.
Within six weeks of receiving the application, the Board will convene a consultation with the applicant and the local council, and issue its decision within three weeks of that. During the process, submissions can be made by members of the public.
It is anticipated that a decision on the Bearna application will be made before the end of this year, and if approved, work could begin next year, with between 80 and 100 jobs created.
A meeting is understood to have taken place with local residents last week, and a spokesperson for Burkeway said they expect to have the application lodged with the Board “by late July”.
There will be more than 100 three- and four-bed homes included in the plans, which have been drawn up by McCauley, Daye, O’Connell Architects – the same company behind Burkeway’s ‘Maoilín’ development in Knocknacarra on the western side of the city, which saw one phase sell out in a matter of hours.
Architect Therese Pender said: “The new development is significant in terms of quality and scale and will help with the urgent requirement for family homes in Galway. It will be built to the same high standard [as Maoilín] and will be designed to complement its surrounds.”
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