Planning Notes: The Raven pub and airport business park could be set for expansion

A Cork City pub is in line for possible extension, if a decision goes its way in the next week.

The proposal was submitted last August to change the use of the ground and first floors of No 3, Liberty Street, from bakery and shop to café/bar/restaurant.

The plan is to connect the premises to the Raven bar, by removing part of an internal wall of the premises, and also to construct a ground-floor rear extension.

Cork City Council received a response last month to its request from applicant, The Raven Partnership, for further information in relation to the plans.

* Additional office capacity may be provided at the Cork Airport Business Park, following a recent, successful planning application.

The plan relates to two sites at the park, near the airport, where Irish Infinity Fund Plc wants to develop 12,000 square metres gross of internal floor area, over two to four storeys. It is also planned to build a four-storey car-park, with space for 500 vehicles.

The application was lodged last September, with Cork County Council, and permission was granted at the start of this month.

* A housing scheme in Drumcondra, on Dublin’s northside, has been approved, but some of the proposed apartments must be omitted.

An Bord Pleanála went against the recommendation of its inspector, by granting permission for the plans, submitted last year to Dublin City Council by CTN Developments. The council had cleared the project for lands at St Joseph’s Centre, off Gracepark Road, in which it was proposed to build 125 houses and 41 apartments, following some alterations during further-information stages.

After third-party appeals, and the applicant’s appeal of conditions, the inspector suggested permission be refused. The board decided, instead, to approve the development, but the revised conditions include the omission of two of the four proposed apartment blocks.

* A small housing scheme has been proposed on the site of a garden centre on the west side of Cork City.

In an application to Cork County Council, the plan for Nangles Garden Centre, on Model Farm Road, is to demolish all existing structures, and provide a new entrance onto Church Hill Road.

Bunsen Investments Ltd is seeking permission to build 19 two-storey homes — 13 detached and six semi-detached — on the site.

In 2011, an application was successful, after third-party appeals, for an extension to the garden shop and a new restaurant.

* Additional homes at the Barracks Quarter development, in Ballincollig, are the subject of an application to Cork County Council.

Permission is being sought by Geaney Property Developments Ltd to build 34 units, and provide more than 70 parking spaces. The plans were recently submitted to the planning authority, which is due to decide the case by May.

* A hotel leisure centre could be converted to a micro-brewery if a recent proposal to planning authorities is approved.

C & P Byrnes Ltd, trading as The Clonakilty Hotel, made the application, recently, to Cork County Council, for part of the hotel premises in the west Cork town’s Wolfe Tone Street.

It is planned to change the use of the existing ground-floor leisure centre area to the brewing of beers and ales. The facility would also be a tourist and visitor attraction, with permission also being sought to provide a bar/dining room within the area, for change-of-use.

The applicant also seeks clearance to carry out changes within the health-leisure spa area of the hotel, and to make some fenestration changes to the north and west elevations.