A LIMERICK City residents group has lodged objections to plans for a 40 residential unit development near their homes, claiming it is being built on or near a flood plain.
Advanced Space Providers Ireland International Ltd are behind the proposed construction of 40 units, comprising 16 semi-detached houses; 15 terraced homes; six duplex units; and three apartments; on a greenfield site off Lower Park Road in Corbally.
Concerned locals who gathered at neighbouring estate Park Gardens, said they are concerned the development would cause flooding in their area.
They also cited concerns that the development would attract additional traffic to the estate, and claimed it would also damage a local Special Area of Conservation (SAC).
These claims are refuted by Advanced Space Providers.
Viv Vereker Campbell, who runs a pre-school adjacent to the site, urged Limerick City and County Council to refuse permission.
The mother-of-two is concerned part of the development will overlook an outdoor play area for children who use her service.
“I am worried, a great asset to my business for the past 21 years has been the quietness, the residents, the privacy. People send their children to me because of the safe and private environment we have here,” said Ms Vereker Campbell.
“My outdoor classroom and play space will be completely overlooked, and that is a concern for me because I have children from two-and-a-half to five years of age, and the upper floors of those properties will have a full view of my outdoor space,” she said.
Kathryn McCarthy, of the Lower Park Development Objectors group, said: “We are not against housing in general, we know housing is needed, but we are against building housing on a flood plain.”
Ms McCarthy said she and others in the area could not get insurance cover for their homes because of their proximity to the River Shannon.
Ms McCarthy said any potential associated works that might result in creating additional traffic through a byway, known locally as the “Mucky Way”, would be resisted by local residents.
“Over our dead bodies…the infrastructure for the roads needed is just not there,” added Ms McCarthy.
Another local resident opposed to the development, Ken O’Grady, claimed it was “completely out of kilter with the rest of Corbally”.
“A big fear is the loss of all our green space, the wildlife, the birds singing, a place to walk with safety with your children”, argued another local resident Joan Lysaght.
The council has refused at least two similar bids to develop houses on the site in 2009 and 2011.
Ms Lysaght added: “Why should we end up having to pay our corporation to put in an objection again and again and again, when it’s blatantly obvious nobody wants this level of development at the end of a cul de sac.”
In the planning application file, the applicant stated that concrete bollards will be retained at the site between Park Gardens and Lower Park Road thus preventing increased traffic into the Park Gardens estate which is served by a cul de sac.
A bank of trees will also be planted to “promote screening and privacy”, and the development will be surrounded by a two-metre wall, the application stated.
The file states that the site is outside of the Special Area of Conservation and the Flood Zone as presented in the current CFRAM Fluvial Map.
A decision on the proposals is expected late next month.
