Irishplanningnews.ie

Intel Ireland Limited have applied for 10 year permission at Leixlip for buildings and ancillary works, alongside existing site infrastructure and buildings, all operating as an integrated campus, for the manufacture of integrated circuits.

 The proposed development includes:

•  manufacturing buildings with a total gross floor area of 162,536 sq.m,
• roof mounted stacks (ranging in height from 4.5m to 15m above parapet),  
• associated cooling towers (17m high);  
• a multi storey car park accommodating 2,200 cars,
• a chemical store of 1,244 sq.m
• 5 number water tanks 32m in diameter and 7m high

 This application will require notification to the EPA owing to a variation to the existing licence and modifications to SEVESO (Major Accidents Hazards involving Dangerous substances).

 An Environmental Impact Statement and a Natura Impact Statement accompany the application.

An Bord Pleanala have granted permission to ESB Wind Development Limited to extend Cappawhite Windfarm in Tipperary .

The applicant has sought permission for an additional 14 turbines.  Each wind turbine will have an overall maximum dimension of 126 metres, comprising a tower 80-85 metres high, with three blades of 41-45 metres length.

The Council (Tipperary South) had granted permission however the decision was appealed to An Bord Pleanala by  and Cappawhite Environs against Wind Turbines Placement Group.

They  pointed out that noted that within a 6 kilometre radius of Cappawhite, there are already 64 wind turbines with planning permission and in various stages of development.

 Although the new turbines were at a higher ground level that the existing turbines An Bord Pleanala granted permission omitting 4 turbines by condition due to the visual impact on a local village.  They also imposed a condition limiting the operational period to 25 years in order to allow a review of the operation at that time.

 An Bord Pleanala have overturned Kerry County Council’s decision to refuse permission for a wind farm comprising 28 turbines at Knockauncurragh, Coom, Glanowen and Glanawaddra, Cordal, County Kerry.

 The Council refused permission on the basis that:

 The application has not demonstrated that the proposed development will not

• give rise to water pollution during and after construction.
•  The application has not demonstrated that it would not have unacceptable impact on the public road network.
•  The proposal could interfere with aircraft safety. 

The Board agreed with their Inspector that permission should however be granted.  The application has been subject to an oral hearing and involved further information being submitted to the Board for consideration.

 “It is considered that, subject to compliance with the conditions set out below, the proposed development will not give rise to water pollution or endanger aircraft safety, will not give rise to traffic hazard or to injury to the visual or residential amenity of the area, and will otherwise accord with the proper planning and sustainable development of the area”.

A review of decisions on referrals (exemption applications) before An Bord Pleanala reveals that no actual decisions are being made.  The majority of decisions are actually confirmations of referrals which are invalid or where the Board deems they have no jurisdiction.  It would appear therefore that the recent appointment of new Board members is still struggling with the backlog of work and referrals are simply not a priority at this stage.

An application for an Anaerobic Digestion/Combined Heat & Power facility consisting of a) Anaerobic Digestion/Combined Heat & Power plant (1,400sq.m.) containing two 10m high tanks, b) 7m high covered silage clamps (1,500sq.m.), c) single storey office/laboratory unit (78sq.m.) and d) all associated site development works has been lodged in Rathmooney, Lusk, Fingal. 

An application for a similar Anaerobic Digestion in a rural location was refused by Wicklow County Council on the grounds of the inability of the local road network to deal with the traffic and visual amenity.

The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government has published new Retail Planning Guidelines and an accompanying Retail Design Manual.  Planning authorities and An Bord Pleanála are required to have regard to the guidelines in the performance of their functions under the Planning Acts.

The convenience retail floor space caps of the new Retail Planning Guidelines are :

• 4,000sq.m in the four Dublin Local Authority areas (Dublin City, Fingal, South Dublin and Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown)
• 3,500sq.m in the cities of Cork, Limerick, Shannon, Galway and Waterford
• 3,000sq.m in the rest of the State.

The new floor space caps apply to new retail stores or extensions to existing stores which will result in an aggregate increase in the net retail floor space of the convenience element of such retail stores.

The Retail warehouse floorspace cap is 6,000sq.m gross (including any ancillary garden centre) and with specific criteria to allow for an exemption from this floorspace cap in city and town centre areas in the 5 Gateway cities of Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Limerick/Shannon and Galway.

The Petrol filling station shops floorspace cap remains at 100sq.m net irrespective of location

The non-statutory Retail Design Manual is intended to assist both planning authorities and respective applicants in relation to design issues and the assessment of the vitality and viability of city and town centres.

An Bord Pleanala have upheld the decision of Westmeath County Council to approve the first phase of a large-scale China trading hub in Athlone, Co. Westmeath.  According to the ABP Inspector’s Report the proposal is for the 1st phase of a larger 5 phase development on a 140 hectare site to be known as the Europe China Trading Hub (ECTH) which would have an estimated overall floor space of nearly 1 million sq.m. to be used as a trading hub for international trade and commerce between China, Europe and the rest of the world.

The development is to provide demonstration space for Chinese manufacturers and traders to display their products to European and international buyers with a view to generating bulk orders which will then be delivered from producers based in China to the recipient. The project would be the largest European source of Chinese branded goods. Presently European and East Coast USA based traders wishing to purchase Chinese goods must travel to China to view products and complete transactions. This results in significant international travel and associated visa requirements. The ECTH proposes to divert many of the international buyers to a centralised location with easy access from both Western Europe and Eastern USA. It will provide business concessionaires and purchasers with a suite of back up services including banking facilities, taxation advice, translation services, legal services and travel arrangements. Provision is to be made to showcase Irish products which are likely to benefit from the expected international footfall. The exhibition zone will be a private business campus accessible by registration/appointment only. Read the rest of this entry »