Consultations on future of city's Ceannt Quarter
More than 170 students, members of special interest groups and business leaders took part in two days of public consultation with the developers of the Ceannt Station lands before design plans are drawn up for the new urban quarter.
The Galway City Development Plan stipulates that the eight-acre Ceannt Station site owned by CIE should only be developed after extensive public consultations.
Those were held on two days last week at Tribeton on Merchants Road where proceedings kicked off with Transition Year students from the Jes, the Bish, St Mary’s and Our Lady’s College.
“This plan for Ceannt is going to be the future for the city so we thought it appropriate to invite students in to have a say about what their city will look like in 20 years,” said a spokesperson for Edward Capital, the company owned by developer Gerry Barrett which was selected in a tendering process to build the €450 million project.
Groups such as the Galway Environmental Network and Friends of Merlin Woods attended in the afternoon to give their views on the nature of the development. The following day, various stakeholders, neighbours and business organisations such as the Galway Chamber of Commerce, the Galway City Business Association and the Harbour Company were invited to outline what they believe should be included and excluded on the site.
“What was clear from the feedback was the need for residential in the city centre. This is essentially a new neighbourhood. There has to be 30% residential under the planning laws and the City Development Plan – that could be 400 residential units in the form of apartments, houses, flats – that’s all still to be decided,” the spokesperson stated.
“Traffic kept coming up, an issue as we all know. The height and how high it should be was another one." This is a preview only. To read the rest of this article and details on the consultation days, see this week's Galway City Tribune. Buy a digital edition of this week's paper here.