Massive housing plan for Magee Barracks re-submitted
Magee Barracks building site
AN application to build 375 homes on the old Magee Barracks site in Kildare town has been re-made, after the developer let the original 2019 permission expire.
Ballymount Properties application also includes for three shops, a two-storey crèche (680sqm), a café, and an exhibition area on an 11.35Ha (28ac) section of the 28Ha (70ac) Hospital Street site, and will require the demolition of 17 existing buildings, including the old officer’s mess and a water tower.
However, as noted by local councillor Suzanne Doyle: “It was permitted as an SHD (Strategic Housing Development) in the first instance, now it’s through Kildare County Council, which has different thresholds with regard to things like density, access and traffic."
What cllr Doyle refers to, is that when Ballymount Homes made their initial application in 2019 it was a Strategic Housing Development (SHD), a method the Government had introduced a few years earlier to fast-track house building.
This allowed large developers with plans for more than 100 houses on a single site to bypass the local authority, and apply straight to an Bord Pleanála (ABP).
However, SHDs were discontinued earlier this year and the application will go back to the council.
“It will be interesting to see what Kildare County Council will do, but Ballymount seem to be reasonable developers,” said cllr Doyle.
It is now more than a quarter of a century since Magee Barracks closed its gates, and its re-development has been in discussions since.
The 2019 ABP permission would have massive influence on the future development of Kildare town, with additional traffic, and pressure on already well-stretched local services.
That had been Ballymount Properties' second attempt to get permission for the 185 houses and 190 apartments on the former army facility.
They were knocked back by the planning authority in July 2018 on housing density issues, after initially having applied to build a total of 264 abodes.
Back in 2019, one of the directors of Ballymount Properties, David Kennedy, predicted that “Phase 1 (190 apartments) would commence in the first part of 2020” and “it’s our intention to proceed to implement the planning permission immediately”.
While this was wildly optimistic, local representative Cllr Kevin Duffy wearing his architect hat had some sympathy, and noted: “They’ve broken ground and a road has gone in. The Department of Education has applied for planning permission for 1,000 student school in on that site, the Aldi has already been built out the front." A decision is due by 5 November.
