Councillors' concerns about 'Athlone's biggest housing project'

It has been described as Athlone's biggest housing development ever to reach this stage of the planning process. And it's already shaping up to be a contentious one.

The proposed 426-unit development beside Buccaneers rugby club, at the intersection of Coosan, Cornamagh, and Clonbrusk, came under the microscope at a special meeting of the Athlone/Moate Municipal District of Westmeath County Council in Athlone Civic Centre on Thursday, July 30.

With a group of local residents protesting against the housing plan outside the building, and some more watching on from within the public gallery, local councillors voiced concerns about several aspects of the strategic housing development submitted by Castlestar (Athlone) Limited to An Bord Pleanala.

The 'Dún an Rí Athlone' development would consist of 237 houses and 189 apartments.

It would be located to the north of the Coosan Road, between The Bounty pub and the Churchfields and Church Hills estates, with The Glen estate situated to the south of the site.

Public submissions can be made on the plans up to August 11, and the planning authority is due to make its decision on the development by October 27.

Five Athlone-area councillors spoke at last week's meeting. While most pointed out that they were in favour of housing development in general, all voiced serious reservations about aspects of this proposal, particularly in relation to its density, design and traffic implications.

Concerns were also aired about the development's impact on the neighbouring estates, with vehement opposition expressed by several councillors to the creation of an opening between the existing Church Hills estate and the new development.

The local representatives felt that 722 car parking spaces for 426 homes was inadequate, and they also questioned whether there was capacity in the nearby schools to cater for such an increase in the local population.

Cllr Tom Farrell said it appeared to him that the design of the proposed housing units was not family-friendly.

"They are like houses for robots. You just go in, you live, you sleep and you're gone. That's not the way a family home should be," he said.

Cllr John Dolan and Cllr Frankie Keena, meanwhile, took issue with the height of the apartments which will rise to a maximum of four storeys.

"I am not in favour of the building of high-density houses and apartment blocks with poor design that are not in keeping with neighbouring houses. This has the potential of becoming an investor’s paradise," said Cllr Keena.

The special meeting was called to collate the views of the Athlone Moate Municipal District members in relation to the development, and a summary of their comments is to be sent to An Bord Pleanala as part of the planning process.

Athlone's Mayor, Cllr Aengus O'Rourke, described it as "the biggest single housing development ever to have gotten to this stage of the planning process in the history of the town".

The Castlestar project is a private development. The council itself is also involved in a separate strategic housing development plan, in conjunction with Alanna Roadbridge Developments Ltd, for 547 new housing units in the Brawney - Lissywollen area, and an application for this project is due to be sent to An Bord Pleanala shortly.

Cllr O'Rourke said Castlestar project, at 42 units per hectare, was higher in density than the 30-35 units allowed for in Athlone's town development plan.

"I am disappointed that this strategic housing development can be allowed to run a coach-and-four through our local area plan," he said.

"Material contraventions to the local area plan were carried out without the views of the local members and the local council. That, for me, is a slap in the face to local democracy."

He said Athlone had long been experiencing issues around an inadequate water supply and pointed to a story in the Westmeath Independent last year which reported that the water demand used by the new M6 service station, around the time of its opening, had caused knock-on outages in the town.

"We found ourselves on our knees, in terms of the provision of fresh drinking water, due to one new business. I can't imagine what 400 houses would do," he said.

His Fianna Fáil colleague, Cllr Keena, responded to this point by saying he was aware a contractor was currently carrying out work to increase the capacity of Athlone's water treatment plant at Marine View.

According to the Castlestar planning application, there is "adequate capacity" in local schools to meet the demand generated by the new homes, but Cllr O'Rourke said he had spoken to local principals who were "quite amazed" by that view.

He also said he wanted to record his opposition to "the proposal to 'break through' an opening from the new estate to the existing Church Hills private estate, between the creche and number 11 Church Hills."

He said this was "wholly unreasonable and unnecessary" and would introduce "a potential security risk" to residents of Church Hills.

Cllr John Dolan also said the Church Hills opening was a "red line" issue as far as he was concerned. The Fine Gael councillor said he "can't get my head around" the implications the new development would have on traffic.

"We have a proposal for a major development in Brawney ourselves. Eventually, traffic coming from this estate is going to merge with traffic coming from that estate. I just want to know how that's going to fit in with safe traffic management, because it's a very busy area as it is."

A similar view was expressed by Cllr Jamie Moran. "As someone that lives in that area, I don't think it's going to work in terms of the traffic," he said, adding that he didn't think the 189 proposed apartment units would be suitable for this area.

Cllr Frankie Keena made a detailed contribution to the meeting, and said he would be making his own submission about the project to An Bord Pleanala.

Among the points he raised were concerns about "the potential for anti-social behaviour occurring in the vacant tract of land between Church Hills and Churchfields that is under the ownership of this developer."

He said the project would see four-storey apartment buildings overlooking The Glen estate and the Buccaneers rugby pitch, and he was worried about this from a child protection standpoint.

"How do we know there won't be somebody on the top of the four-storey looking down at young children playing rugby? It's a danger there that needs to be addressed," he told the meeting.

Cllr Keena felt the design of the houses showed a "lack of sensitivity to modern day home life" and that "we really need to move on from late twentieth century urban house design, with very little living or working from home space".

He also referred to the current pandemic, saying high-density housing made social distancing more difficult.

"I am calling on An Bord Pleanala to be cognisant of the public health pandemic that we are presently living through in making planning decisions about future high-density developments such as this Castlestar (project)," he said.

Cllr Tom Farrell agreed with the observations of the other members and - in addition to his point about the design of the houses not being "family friendly" - he asked how people with disabilities would be catered for in the development.

He said his board of management involvement in schools had made him acutely aware of issues around school spaces, and he also spoke about potential parking problems.

"We all know what's going to happen with car parking. They'll be parking on the footpaths, parking on the roads, parking in different places, and then when an emergency arises nobody can get in," he said.

In addition to the councillors quoted above, Cllr Liam McDaniel attended the meeting but did not speak at it. Councillors Vinny McCormack, Louise Heavin, and Johnny Penrose were not in attendance.