Plans for €60m mixed-use development in Limerick rejected by planners

Plans for a €60m mixed-used office, hotel and residential development, including two drive-thru restaurants and a filling station, in Limerick city have been rejected by An Bord Pleanála.
The development, which is on a 7.9 hectare site at Singland on Dublin Road, Limerick, also provided for a landmark 14-storey apartment block, new 1.12-hectare public park and playground and community building containing a creche and multi-use games facility.
The board cited grounds of substandard accommodation and failure to be consistent with the zoning of the majority of the site.
It noted some apartments would need to have windows and balconies sealed to combat traffic noise, while approximately 48pc of the development was earmarked for residential use in a site zoned primarily for enterprise and employment with the office blocks only being developed in the final phase of a 10-year construction project.
The board upheld an appeal by Environmental Trust Ireland against the decision of Limerick City and County Council to grant planning permission for the project.
The development included four office blocks, a 152-bed hotel and 245 apartments and duplexes across a number of blocks ranging from three to 14 stories in height near the Parkway Retail Park around 2.5km from the city centre.
The location is the site of a partially built shopping centre which was abandoned in 2009 and largely demolished in 2020. It has been the proposed site of Limerick’s first Marks & Spencer store as well as an ice rink.
The developer, Novelty ICAV, had estimated the development would have provided office space for up to 1,000 workers.
In its ruling An Bord Pleanála said the overall mix and ratio of uses proposed in the development was not consistent with the overall zoning objective of the majority of the site which were for the “creation and protection of enterprise and to facilitate opportunities for employment creation”.
For that reason the board said the project would be contrary to proper planning and sustainable development of the area.
It also refused the application because of the location of the 14-storey apartment block alongside the Dublin Road and the car-dominated layout of the development.
A planning inspector with An Bord Pleanála said the nature and mix of the proposed development represented “a significantly missed opportunity to provide the type of development envisaged in the strategic vision for Limerick”.