From this week’s Galway City Tribune – Galway City Council has drawn up plans for 84 social housing units in Knocknacarra, along with a neighbourhood plaza, community shop units and a creche.

The ‘Part 8’ planning application – one which will ultimately have to be voted on by councillors – for the 4.5-acre site was officially submitted last week.

The site is in the townland of Ballyburke and is to the right of the entrance road to Colaiste na Coiribe off the Ballymoneen Road – adjacent to Drisín and Maoilín.

The plans involve four apartment blocks (in a mix of one, two and three-beds) and 13 three-bed terraced houses. The apartment blocks step up from two-storey elements adjacent the existing housing developments “to limit any overshadowing concerns” and raise up to 3-6 storeys “in order to ensure a suitable density is achieved on the site”, according to the application.

“Of the apartments proposed 40% of these are designed as age friendly/universal design units which by being located adjacent to the local centre services proposed will be very accessible. There is a high proportion of 3/4 bedroom family houses in the area. With an ever-changing demographic the proposed units, over the long term, will facilitate downsizers moving to more suitable housing, while also living close to their local community.

“It is intended to provide local centre units, café, crèche, a central plaza space and a landscaped amphitheatre within the development and therefore address the legacy of limited services provided within the wider community,” the application reads.
This is a shortened preview version of this story. To read the rest of the article, see the January 26 edition of the Galway City Tribune. You can support our journalism and buy a digital edition HERE.