Work/live units form part of new Galway City affordable housing project
From this week's Galway City Tribune - Five ‘live/work’ units form part of the design of a new affordable and social housing development planned for Ballybane.
The mixed development unanimously approved by city councillors this week will provide 103 apartments and houses in the Coillte Mhuirlinne estate.
A total of 85 homes will be affordable, although the details of how much they will cost to purchase have yet to be decided. The remaining 20%, or 18 units, will be social housing. Some €4.6 million in Government funding has already been approved for the social housing aspect of the plan.
Included in the design of the housing development is a ‘live/work’ element.
The Council’s Acting Director of Services for Housing, Tom Prendergast, explained that the ground floor of the five live/work three-storey units would contain an office, retail or commercial unit for service providers with three-bedroom maisonettes over the next two floors.
“It would be envisioned that these five units would be small-scale businesses run by the occupants living above.
“There would be little passing trade for any commerciality of these units so we would envisage small local services similar to a hairdresser, accountant, physiotherapist would occupy these units as an extension of ‘working from home’,” the report to city councillors said.
Mr Prendergast said the concept was similar to people living over their shops in towns and city centres. A crèche will also be built close to the commercial units.
Mayor of Galway, Colette Connolly, said she hoped lessons were learned from the previous commercial property development in Ballybane where units “were empty for 15 years” and some public bodies could not afford the rents.
This is a shortened preview version of this article. To read the rest of the story, see this week's Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.