From this week’s Galway City Tribune – Plans for the development of 60 social housing apartments on top of Aldi and Mr Price in the Westside have been lodged at City Hall.

The owners of what is formally called the ‘West City Centre Office and Retail Park’ off Seamus Quirke Road have sought permission to demolish the first floor office space at the building to make way for three storeys with 60 apartments – 27 on the first floor; 27 on the second floor and six penthouse apartments.

The plans include a landscaped podium courtyard and communal open space at the southern (Shantalla) end of the block.

The ground floor will remain occupied by the existing retail units, and a new retail wing (adding a further 2,100 square metres to the existing 3,750 sq m of retail space) will be built on what is cordoned off land in the carpark.

“The social housing units will be built for the purpose of providing housing to people who are assessed as being unable to provide accommodation from their own resources, hence, it is expected that the overall number of residents who own a car will be reduced,” the plans read.

The developers told the City Council that planning permission was granted in January 2008 for a two-storey mixed-use development as ‘Phase 2’ of the site, which would have been 3,3,27 sq m of office and retail space.

A Traffic and Transport Assessment was carried out by the applicants at that point and it found that the additional traffic generated by the extension and additional parking “would not negatively affect the functionality of the junction between Seamus Quirke Road and Old Seamus Quirke Road and the junction would still function with plenty of spare capacity in the future design years, up to 2024”.
This is a shortened preview version of this story. To read the rest of the article,  see the December 2 edition of the Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.