AN application for a seven screen cinema at the Ennis Road Retail Park – next to Dunnes – is pending, awaiting further information from the applicant, according to the Planning department of Limerick City Council. Under Limerick City Development Plan 2004-2010, the site in question is zoned for general purpose land use.
A spokesperson for the department told the Limerick Post that a request for further information from applicant MZM Holdings Ltd had been made on February 11 of this year, but that a response had not yet been received.
Included in the request for further information was the following:
– Submission of a TRICS (transport impacts of new developments) assessment for a multi-screen cinema of similar size and a more legible Cumulative Analysis.
The planning department says that the TRICS data was omitted from the ‘Accessibility and Traffic Generation Assessment,’ and that the cumulative analysis is difficult to read or interpret.
– The possibility of providing staff parking within the existing service yard to the rear of the building which would be unnecessary for cinema use is requested to be explored.
– The applicant is asked to make more appropriate and functional improvements to the existing bicycle spaces by relocating spaces near the proposed cinema. The bicycle spaces should be accommodated in a roofed area with adequate supervision and security.
– The Clonmacken Link Road is currently under consideration to be taken-in-charge by the City Council. A section of the roundabout at the site entrance is within the ownership of Callerview Properties Ltd., and so a request was made for identification of the land within the company’s ownership to allow for the legal conveyance of the net road space at the roundabout to Limerick City Council.
The response to the application by MZM Holdings specifies that “if the response to request for further information results in material change to the design, the Planning Authority may require a new public notice in an approved newspaper”.
Earlier this year, senior planning officer at the City Council, Kieran Reeves, told the Limerick Post that an earlier application for a 10 screen cinema by a Cork-based cinema operator, had been turned down, but that a new application had been made for seven screens.
It is understood that the new applicant is from Galway, where he already runs a cinema complex.
Mr Reeves again emphasised a preference for cinemas at a city centre location.
As exclusively reported in the Limerick Post earlier this year, a planning application is to be made to City Council for cinemas in Catherine Street, across from the Mid-Western Health Board headquarters.
