Council votes to rezone land for hypermarket

By Bernie Ní Fhlatharta

Galway City Council voted last night to rezone a nine and a half acre site at Shantalla to make way for a possible €35m development which would include a hypermarket.

The issue has divided the local community in recent weeks following a legal challenge to the Council’s decision last January to reject the request to rezone the site from Commercial Industrial (CI) to a District Centre – the next planning stage below a city centre.

The issue only got a half-hour airing last night, though it has been a ‘hot potato’ in the community for the past six months.

Feelings ran so high on both sides of the argument that it was decided to hold a public meeting last week which was addressed by, among others, the proposed developer, former city mayor, Micheál Ó hUiginn, the owner of the site and instigator of the rezoning application.

Last night councillors who were against the rezoning cited increased traffic volume in an already built up area; the death of smaller shops in the community if a supermarket giant like Tesco were to develop a store there; and indeed the demise of other businesses in the city centre, which is just over a mile away.Council executives and planners reminded councillors that rezoning it from CI went completely against the Minister’s own retail strategy laid down for urban planning.

Those in favour of the rezoning pointed out that 416 people in the area had signed a document in favour of the proposed development and that a number of smaller shops, including the owner of the Londis store opposite the University Hospital Galway, were also in favour.

Read more in today's Connacht Sentinel

Have your say in our online poll here