Permission granted for 300 Ballincollig homes despite objection

Developer Michael O'Flynn's own plans for a 1,150 home development in the same area were recently refused

MOS Homes Limited is seeking to demolish agricultural buildings at a more than 13-hectare site at Carriganarra and Carrigrohane to make way for 300 homes.

Planning approval has been granted for 300 new homes in the Cork suburb of Ballincollig, despite objections from rival developer Michael O'Flynn, whose own plans for a 1,150 home development in the same area were recently refused.

MOS Homes secured the large-scale residential development (LRD) permission for lands at Carriganarra and Carrigrohane, to the south of the Healthfield estate, which they are also developing.

The scheme comprises 128 houses and 172 apartments and duplexes, alongside a two-storey creche for 100 children. The houses include 42 four-bed and 84 three-bed homes, plus two two-bed units in a restored vernacular farm building on the site. The apartments and duplexes, in 20 blocks of three to four storeys over basement, include 45 one-bed, 109 two-bed and 18 three-bed units.

The site is part of the Maglin Urban Expansion Area, a land bank of about 220 hectares between the town and the N22, and the city development plan relies on it for most of Ballincollig's future housing. The development will extend the Maglin Sustainable Access Corridor, the spine road already partly built through Heathfield.

Cork City Council this week granted planning permission for the development subject to 63 conditions. These include a requirement that all houses and duplexes be restricted to first occupation by individual buyers rather than corporate entities, or by people eligible for social, affordable or cost rental housing.

MOS must pay development contributions of just over €1.2m. It must also have the creche operational before starting the second of three construction phases. HW Planning, the developer's planning consultant, had asked that the creche only be required before the whole development is complete. It cited the "well publicised difficulties" in securing childcare operators.

O'Flynn Construction, through McCutcheon Halley Planning Consultants, objected in late August, calling the scheme piecemeal. It said the proposed bridge over the Maglin North River fell outside the site boundary, leaving it unclear how much of the new transport corridor MOS would build.

They also argued that O'Flynn's own adjacent plan had been refused while the MOS scheme was treated differently, saying the "disparate approach" allowed "one developer to dictate housing delivery" in the area.

City Council planners refused permission in August for 1,150 homes, a creche and three retail units at Maglin, to the north of the Ballincollig Bypass. The council found the scheme premature pending delivery of the South Ballincollig sustainable transport corridor, and cited car dependency and deficiencies in the road network. O'Flynn has appealed the decision to An Coimisiún Pleanála and is seeking an oral hearing.

O'Flynn has appealed the refusal to An Coimisiún Pleanála and is seeking an oral hearing, calling the council's decision "totally illogical" and saying it contained "fundamental factual errors and shortcomings". The council had refused the scheme mainly over inadequate road infrastructure, citing the "absence of definite proposals" for the South Ballincollig transport corridor. O'Flynn says that claim is factually incorrect. It says the first phase of 318 homes would deliver the full section of the corridor on its lands, with later phases tied to further road delivery.

The appeal also criticises the council for failing to deliver the infrastructure itself on lands zoned for housing for more than 15 years, and says refusing the scheme blocks substantial developer-funded infrastructure. A decision is due by November 1.