THE LETTERKENNY Town Plan is not yet ready to go out to public consultation as a number of environmental reports have to be carried out.
A number of proposed changes to the plan were put forward at last week’s county council meeting when the draft plan was being considered by members.
One of the biggest issues was the Council planners’ proposal to dezone lands close to the Atlantic Technological University (ATU) as ‘Town Centre’ because they say they are a flood risk. However councillors feel the lands should retain their ‘Town Centre’ zoning in order to keep the land available for development.
Cllr Jimmy Kavanagh proposed the area marked ‘Flood Zone A’ close to the ATU campus retain its current planning status. He said with a meeting imminent with the Office of Public Works (OPW) and the possibility of a flood relief scheme for Letterkenny there does not seem to be an immediate need to change the planning status of the lands.
“By the time these lands are developed there could well be a flood relief scheme in place,” said Cllr Kavanagh.
“It is important we keep pressure on the OPW for a flood relief scheme for the town and that is best achieved by emphasising the importance of developing our town centre in a balanced way. It is important that we try and keep town centre land available for development.”
Cllr Kavanagh said with the recent university status for the town the need for more student accommodation is going to become even more acute in the future.
Cllr Gerry McMonagle said there should be no difference made between the lands east or west of the Isle Burn.
“We are drawing a designated line and allowing development on one side of that line and not on the other. I don’t think that is fair or indeed practical and it does not allow for the balanced development of the town centre,” said Cllr McMonagle.
“The town is one of six regional areas that has been selected for the 2040 plan for future development and we have ambition to grow into a city in the short term.
“We are in discussions with the OPW. While there isn’t a flood risk scheme at the minute in Letterkenny there will be in the very near future I believe.”
He said any developments on the lands could have criteria and conditions in relation to flood mitigation works. “We should not be de-zoning land in that particular area. The ATU is adjacent to it.”
Cllr Michael McBride put forward an amendment to the plan asking that all references to the 2040 regeneration strategy be removed. Director of Services, Mr Liam Ward said this would be counter-intuitive to proceed with a Local Area Plan for Letterkenny without any reference to the 2040 strategy.
Mr Ward said the 2040 strategy was commissioned to promote how we see the town developing into the future. He said it is not a finalised document and hoped it would be completed by mid-year.
Cllr John O’Donnell also put forward an amendment requesting that lands south of the Leck Road, currently zoned as strategic residential reserve be zoned the same as the lands north of the Leck Road – south Letterkenny strategic development zone.
Mr Ward said they would now proceed to the next stage of the process which was the finalisation of the environmental reports based on the changes the councillors had put forward.
The reports will then come back before the councillors for consideration before the plan can proceed to public consultation.
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