PLANS HAVE been lodged for what would be the largest residential housing scheme in Co Clare with a €200 million proposal aiming to create a new suburb of Ennis.
Ennis-based construction firm Crystal Partners is seeking planning permission for 471 residential units in the first phase of a masterplan that would ultimately deliver 700 new homes in the Gaurus area on the eastern outskirts of Ennis.
The site covers a 95-acre land-bank - which covers 75 per cent of the Gaurus townland. Along with the 471 residential units, the plan provides for a creche, neighbourhood centre with shopping facilities and 14 residential serviced sites.
The masterplan and site also provide for a 16-teacher school and an associated playing field.
The lodging of the planning application along with an environmental impact statement (EIS) coincides with a downturn in the housing market.
Figures from Homebond - which account for about 75 per cent of new house registrations - confirmed that the number of new house starts in the midwest for the first two months of this year has dropped by almost 80 per cent on the corresponding period last year. The number of new home registrations for Clare for January stood at just four.
However, a spokesman for Crystal Partners described Gaurus Village "as a vote of confidence in the future growth and prosperity of Ennis".
"Gaurus Village is a bold imaginative approach to urban development with provision for a school, shops, recreation areas, playing pitches, walking trails and natural habitat areas," the spokesman added.
The proposed dwelling units in phase one will consist of 226 two-bedroom apartments; 80 semi-detached houses; 58 mid-terrace townhouses; 48 end-of-terrace houses; 42 three-bedroom apartments and 17 detached houses.
The application now makes Crystal Partners well placed to become one of the largest house-building firms in the west. Already, the company has bought lands formerly owned by the diocese of Killaloe at Clareabbey outside Ennis, where it secured planning permission for 219 residential units, while it is seeking planning for 240 residential units at the Kildysart Road outside Clarecastle.
One of the directors of Crystal Partners is Seán Lyne, who is also involved in the €350 million plan to purchase the GAA's Cusack Park in Ennis and redevelop the site with a mixed-use development.
The Crystal Partners spokesman said: "Ennis is one of the fastest-growing towns in Ireland with a projected population of 40,000 by 2016.
"Accommodating this growing population is not just about building houses - it requires an imaginative approach to the challenges of 21st-century urban living where the needs of the community are integral to the design and planning process.
A decision is expected on the application later this year.
