From this week’s Galway City Tribune – Efforts to create a village centre in the vicinity of the Cappagh Road in Galway have failed to materialise and the suggested rezoning of almost nine acres of land for housing development has been voted down.

During discussions on the Galway City Development Plan, it was proposed to rezone lands at Cappagh Road, less than a kilometre from the roundabout on the Western Distributor Road, from agriculture to residential.

The move was supported by Cllr John Connolly (FF) who said that when the city boundary was extended back in the mid-1980s, it brought in the likes of Cappagh and Boleybeg – impacting on Barna GAA Club numbers in the process.

The City West councillor said that around the same time, the likes of Menlo, Briarhill and Castlegar were also brought inside the boundary but they have an established village core, unlike Cappagh.

Cllr Connolly said that Cappagh was lacking a ‘village envelope’ unlike the areas on the east side that were included within the city boundary at the time.

But Niall Murphy (Green) referred to a previous discussion where city planners said there was already enough land in the city zoned for residential development that would satisfy the requirements of the new Development Plan covering 2023-29.

(The lands are to the north-west of the Cappagh roundabout. Image: Google Earth)

This is a shortened preview version of this article. To read the rest of this story and more coverage of Galway City Development Plan votes, see the August 5 edition of the Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.