Locals object to Cork GAA's €75m housing scheme

The profits earned by the county board from the €75m scheme are to pay down the Páirc Uí Chaoimh stadium debt. Picture: Larry Cummins

Plans by the Cork County GAA Board for a €75m 319-unit housing scheme for Cork City are facing local opposition.

Earlier this year, the GAA county board lodged fast track plans with An Bord Pleanála for the strategic housing development (SHD) scheme on a Cork GAA-owned site at Old Whitechurch Rd, Kilbarry on the northern fringes of Cork City.

The profits earned by the county board from the €75m scheme are to pay down the Páirc Uí Chaoimh stadium debt which stood at €29.74m at the end of last September.

The scheme is made up of 85 semi-detached homes; 118 terraced units; 53 duplex units; and 63 apartments.

The 37-acre site — adjacent to Delaney Rovers GAA Club — currently comprises open fields, while an old hurling manufacturing factory lies derelict at the western side.

An Bord Pleanála has received just over 20 objections against the scheme with 69 names appended to one objection.

The Keep Murphy’s Rock Wild Group has told the appeals board: “We understand the need for housing — not just housing — but housing that enables low-carbon sustainable communities, simultaneously protecting and valuing rather than degrading existing biodiversity.” 

The group says development “will fail in this regard”. 

“There are other more suitable sites in close proximity that we suggest are more suitable,” it said.

In its objection, the Cork Environmental Forum has told the appeals board the development is not appropriate as “it is being built at the most distant and isolated part of the community on a site furthest from public transport links and most difficult to access by walking and cycling”.

Hitting out at the scheme, the Forum stated “what we do not need now is a sprawl that erodes the very fabric of those communities and the sense of place that has evolved over centuries”.

“We contend that the footprint of the entire site is within an area that should be retained as green infrastructure for nature and community amenity area.” 

Objections

In a 25-page submission, Jason Homan and family say the development is seen by many as merely an exercise by the Cork GAA Board to service its debt of €29.74m for the construction of Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

“There is little or no regard for the residents of the locality and the ploy to fast track the development through Bord Pleanála via the guise of a national strategic housing development is merely a route to avoid the proper planning channels which historically prevented the development of these lands.” 

Another local resident, Noreen Twomey has told the board that “the privacy and security of my property will be compromised due to this development that is proposed”.

Principal Ecologist at Abbott Ecology, Dr Isobel Abbott told the appeals board that the importance of the fungal community at the Kilbarry site “is truly remarkable. It is a conservation jewel at the edge of Cork City”.

She told the board that the development at Kilbarry “is likely to result in the permanent and irreversible regional extinction of “waxcap grassland” habitat and fungi species of national and worldwide conservation significance.

Stephen Kearney of Mervue Lawn, Ballyvolane Cork has told the board that “the size and scale of the proposed development is too big for the area” adding that “within 10km of this proposed development we currently have four other developments underway these developments will add a further 4,000 units to the area”.

Advancing the case for the scheme, Coakley & O’Neill Town Planning state that the scheme “will provide much needed housing units, at an appropriate density…in an area of Cork City that has not benefited from the provision of a significantly scaled private housing development in many years”.

On lodging the plan, CEO of Cork GAA, Kevin O’Donovan said: “This project is a key element of the financial security of Cork GAA and the ongoing stabilisation of our finances.

Chairman of Cork County GAA Board, Marc Sheehan said at the same time: “The shortage of housing in Cork and across the country is well documented and this development could provide homes for hundreds of families in a great location.” A decision is due to be made on the scheme in October.