The Gaeltacht village of Barna has reached "saturation point" in relation to all new housing under the Galway County Development Plan.
Galway County Council has confirmed that no new applications for housing development can be lodged in the village, which has been at the centre of controversy recently over proposals for several large-scale developments.
Any further applications can only be considered if councillors vote in favour of a material contravention of the plan, Galway County Council's director of planning, Paul Ridge, told The Irish Times.
Barna, now a suburb of Galway city, is one of six "towns" allowed a total allocation of 480 new houses under the Galway county plan.
The plan allowed for an increase on this figure of 30 per cent (to 624 houses in total) and by 50 per cent in "exceptional" cases.
Some 625 houses - one over the 30 per cent ceiling - have now been approved by the local authority for Barna (221 houses), Headford (168), Claregalway (116), Spiddal (56), Moycullen (51) and Oughterard (13).
Mr Ridge said while the local authority could not dictate to the housing market, it would prefer to see a balance being struck in Moycullen, Spiddal and Oughterard.
Pobal Bhearna, a local group campaigning to protect Barna from unsustainable development, has called on An Bord Pleanála to hold an oral hearing into its appeal against the latest scheme proposed for the village.
Approval for a mixed scheme involving housing and commercial units near the shoreline at Seapoint was granted in January in the face of local opposition.
Pobal Bhearna says its main grounds for an oral hearing on the Seapoint plan relate to a lack of public confidence in planning in the area; the lack of a local area plan; the lack of guidelines to protect the coast; the impact on sewerage; and the absence of any language clause with the planning permission in spite of the village being in the Gaeltacht.
