12-08-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
Tourism key as Waterford apartments blocked by An Coimisiún Pleanála
Oakshade Holdings Ltd applied to Waterford City and County Council on October 27, 2023, for permission to build the mixed use housing development at Pebble Beach, Riverstown, Tramore, Co Waterford.
The plans were to change the existing ground floor mixed use development from commercial to residential, to provide for three two-bedroom apartments, along with the construction of a new second floor to the existing two-storey building.
The new second floor would have provided for five new apartments consisting of one two-bedroom apartment, two one-bedroom apartments, and two studio apartments, with the provision of a new three-storey extension to the front of the building to provide a new stairwell and lift access to the new second floor.
There would have been modifications to all existing facades, together with retention permission for modifications to existing external windows and doors and all associated site development works and associated site services. The council requested further information in December 2023, and this was received in July 2024.
Local residents Mary Egan and Donal Blackwell made observations at the planning stage. The observations stated that the development would encroach on the observers' property within the ground floor of the premises.
They maintained that a planning report recommended refusal on the grounds of the site being zoned 'tourism' and that the change of use and construction of an additional floor would be incompatible with the pattern of uses in the area. The observations also stated the drawings submitted did not represent the existing configuration.
The council gave the go-ahead on October 11, 2024, subject to 12 conditions. Mary Egan and others appealed this decision to An Coimisiún Pleanála on November 11, 2024. The commission issued its ruling on Wednesday, July 30, refusing permission for the proposed development.
The authority said the site was within an area zoned 'tourism' in the Waterford City and County Development Plan 2022-2028, where the land use zoning objective is 'to provide for tourist uses' and that the development plan 'zoning matrix' states that a residential scheme is not permitted in the 'tourism' land use zoning area.
'It is considered that the nature of the development of apartments for residential use as proposed would be incompatible with the area and would materially contravene the land use zoning objective 'to provide for tourist uses' of the Waterford City and County Development Plan 2022-2028, and, accordingly, would be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.'
