Offaly County Council urged to zone more land for housing

PROPERTY developers are lobbying Offaly County Council to have sites in Killeigh and Birr zoned for housing.

In Killeigh village, the developers of the Millbrook Grove scheme, where 19 houses have been built in the last 12 years, say they wish to construct more “detached houses of similar size and appearance”.

They say the first phase has been very well accepted by the locality, has benefitted the local primary school which is within walking distance, and has “enhanced the viability of businesses in the village”.

In a submission to the draft Offaly County Development Plan, which will govern planning in the county from 2021 to 2027, the developers point out that the second phase of Millbrook Grove would encompass an area currently not zoned and another small area zoned as a green area.

They say that after development a nine-acre green area will remain.

They also ask that that area between the village hall and the bridge on the main Tullamore-Portlaoise road be zoned residential.

An architect acting for the developers told the council they are aware a section on the south of the land is within a flood plain but say that according to local knowledge it never flooded.

“However, any applications for development in this flood zone will only be considered with a favourable flood risk assessment,” the architect says, adding that the council has carried out works recently which have “resolved any issues”.

In Birr, the council is being asked to reconsider the zoning of a 0.65ha site at Military Road from open space, sports, recreation and amenity to residential.

It is proposed that eight homes would be built there and the area already has a mix of one-off houses, detached and semi-detached.

In a submission, the council has been told the site “in its current state will not serve the directives of Open Space zoning and would be better suited to use as Residential, supplying much needed affordable family homes to the town of Birr/Crinkill”.

The site is said to offer excellent potential for “low density” residential development, with a main sewer running parallel to it and wide footpaths on both sides of the road.

The land across the road is zoned residential and a plan for four houses is being reviewed by the council.

“The town of Birr and village of Crinkill would greatly benefit from adding quality new build energy efficient homes to an undersupplied housing market,” the submission says.

Elsewhere in Birr, at Clonoghill Upper, the owners of land have asked for 8.68ha to be zoned residential for social and affordable housing.

Another submission to the draft development plan objects to a proposal to the inclusion of a house and its curtilage in the record of protected structures.

The objection relates to a property in Bracknagh and the council has been told the owner would not have the financial means to maintain the house and that designation would make the adjoining farm unworkable.