City Council gives green light for Ballincollig apartments

CORK City Council’s planning department has given the green light for a housing development in a Cork city suburb.

Zokralo Limited, applied for the change of use of retail units at Heritage Walk and The Parade in Ballincollig Town Centre, Ballincollig, Cork.

The developers have been given the go-ahead to transform the 15 existing ground floor retail units into 16 apartments. They are close to the Quadrants residential area in Ballincollig town centre.

This new development will incorporate eight one bed apartments, five two-bed apartments, and three three-bedroom apartments into units 4, and 6 to 18 at Heritage Walk, and unit 10 at The Parade in Ballincollig.

The proposed development will also see unit 9 at Heritage Walk subdivided to provide two residential units. The planning permission also includes elevational changes to all units and all ancillary site works.

One objection was made against the development, which states that the removal of retail units would have a serious effect on the viability of Ballincollig town centre and would contradict the original Master Plan of the area.

The submission also condemned the sub-standard private open space with the units.

A significant amount of clarification and further information was required by Cork City Council from the developers prior to their decision. They highlighted issues with daylight provision to a number of bedrooms in the development, which the developers rectified.

Details regarding the accessibility of communal refuse were sought and provided, as were revised site layout plans detailing communal open space. The planning authority also looked for details of access to parking facilities, however, there is currently no spare car parking capacity available within the Quadrants.

Cork City Council granted the development subject to nine conditions, which include the provision of 36 bicycle spaces, and noise level limits during construction.