Cork Council green light for Apple car-park expansion along with employing 6,000 by 2030
Cork City Council has given the green light to Apple for 285 extra car parking spaces at its European headquarters in Cork to help facilitate an additional 1,300 new employees for its campus in 2025.
The Council has attached 22 conditions to the planning permission to Apple Operations International Ltd (AOIL) for the additional car-park spaces in one car-park with 159 spaces and the other with 126 spaces — on land banks it owns to the north of David McCarthy Rd on the northside of Cork city.
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The permission follows consultants for AOIL, DBFL Consulting Engineers telling the council that the number of employees is expected to reach 5,350 across the entire Apple Campus at Hollyhill by mid-2025.
DBFL state that there is a longer-term projection 'of 6,000 employees by 2030 subject to market conditions'.
The grant of permission for the 285 car-spaces is in addition to the 2,572 parking spaces either on-site or under construction at the Hollyhill Campus.
In a planning report lodged with the application, consultants, HW Planning stated that the proposal is appropriate to facilitate the continued successful operation of Apple Operations in Cork and to meet the growing needs of their operations across Ireland and Europe "in the absence of frequent public transport provision'.
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They state that the additional car spaces are required despite the initiatives being implemented on campus to promote sustainable travel options and are required to ensure the continued success of this strategic employment hub.
Outlining the background to the application in a Parking Justification Report, DBFL state that 'the additional spaces are requested to provide short-medium term resilience and mitigate anticipated delays to the planned public transport and road network improvements ahead of the opening of the Hollyhill 5 building in mid-2025'.
The report states that "in the longer term, there may be scope to repurpose these spaces to higher-value uses that support the expansion of the Apple Campus – once the planned key upgrades to Cork's transport network are delivered'.
Outlining the need for the additional car-spaces, the report
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cites delays in various public transport initiatives.
The report states that initially the Cork Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy (CMATS) 2040 envisaged the construction of the Cork Northern Distributor Multi Modal Road (CNDR) by 2027 which would provide orbital active travel and public transport connectivity to the campus.
The report states: 'However, the likelihood is that the delays to the roll-out of the CNDR in particular, will necessitate short-medium term requirement of the proposed car-parking.
On planned BusConnects, the report states that while the original BusConnects timeline envisaged roll-out of infrastructure and services beginning in 2024, roll-out is now scheduled to commence in 2025/2026.
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The report states: 'The delays in the rollout of BusConnects has resulted in additional Apple Shuttle services being required to address ongoing issues in journey time reliability.
The report further stated that CMATS also proposes six Park and Ride facilities, including at Dunkettle and Blarney/Stoneview, connected by high-quality public transport services to key destinations.
It states that 'to date, none of these P+R proposals have been delivered despite the establishment of a dedicated Park and Ride office in the National Transport Authority".
The report states that in line with Apple's wider commitments to climate action and sustainability objectives, it would seek to reduce the number of employees commuting to the Hollyhill Campus by car in the long-term, by reducing the number of spaces per employee over time.
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