Work has officially begun for the expansive €124 million Strategic Housing Development (SHD) in Co Cork.
Construction commenced in late July, three years after initial approval for the scheme.
Developer Longview Estates Ltd is set to deliver 753 new homes on the site at Lahardane and Ballincolly.
Of these dwellings, 531 will be houses and 222 are apartments.
Granted seven-year permission from An Bord Pleanala, construction will take place during a series of phases with the aim of six neighbourhoods to be built in total.
There will be 67 no. detached houses, including 31 four-beds and 36 three-beds.
Credit: Arko Visualisation
Semi-detached make up the bulk of the houses of 278 – 41 four-beds and 237 three-beds.
Plans also envision 186 terraced houses, 18 four-beds, 96 three-beds and 72 two-beds.
In regards to the apartments, there will be 69 duplexes – including 36 three-beds and 33 two-beds.
For the other 153 apartments, six are studios, 42 are one-beds, 79 are two-beds and 26 are three-beds.
The apartments will be built across three blocks, two in Neighbour 6 and one in Neighbourhood 2.
Aside from residential units, there are provisions for a local centre including two retail units, a crèche, a doctor’s surgery and a community use unit.
Credit: Horgan Carroll
The development includes a number of open spaces and play areas as well as general landscaping, boundary treatments (including walls and landscaping to the houses to the north and lands to the east), and landscaped parkland/greenway.
Two vehicular accesses will be set up from the Ballyhooly Read and from the local road to the north of the site – this will see local road widening within applicant lands, resurfacing and boundary works.
Signalisation will occur on the Lower Dublin Hill and Ballyhooly Road Junction as well as a new bus stop on the eastern side of Ballyjollly Road.
New pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure will be drawn along the eastern side of the Ballyhooly Road with a crossing of the same close to Mervue Lawn South.
Planning was granted by An Bord Pleanala on May 27, 2020 subject to 31 conditions.
In their decision report, ABP found that the development will have a “positive impact” on population and “will comply with the national target for the expansion of major cities”.
“Impact on human health will be neutral in the long-term.”
Feature Image Credit: Arko Visualisation
