More details of €120m Coosan housing project are revealed

Photos: Graphics of what the new €120 million development planned by Castlestar (Athlone) Ltd will look like in Coosan.

Here are the first glimpses of what a 400-home development in the Coosan area could look like as part of an estimated €120m plus investment by Castlestar (Athlone) Ltd.

Proposals for the massive development, to be known as Dún an Rí, were lodged with An Bord Pleanála on July 8 last as part of the Strategic Housing Development (SHD) planning system, a new fast-track process which allows large projects to go directly to the planning board bypassing the local authority.

The project, earmarked for a greenfield site on the Coosan Road, comprises 426 A-rated homes as part of what's billed as a “high-quality residential scheme” made up of 237 housing units and 189 apartments, a creche, a large central parkland area with a children’s playground.

Castlestar (Athlone) Ltd is putting the value of the total investment as somewhere between €120 million to €130 million, a figure they describe as a “significant capital investment in the construction of new homes within Athlone and a strong vote of confidence in the vibrancy of Athlone town and Westmeath county as a whole, as an attractive place to live and do business.”

The 15.615-hectare site will be accessed from Coosan Road which partly forms its southern boundary. Adjoining the site is Buccaneers RFC playing fields to the east, undeveloped farmland to the north, and the housing developments of Church Hills Road, Church Hills Crescent, Churchfields to the west, according to the planning documents.

The land is also directly located across the road from The Glen estate to the west and south.

The project would be developed in four phases over a four to five year period, the applicant says, estimating that it would generate circa 150 to 200 direct and indirect jobs during each phase.

The company adds that they also hope that this will in turn deliver a very “positive boost to the local economy” as it is their policy, where possible, to select the main contractor and to work with local companies and tradesmen in the construction sector to the maximum extent possible.

If planning approval comes through, the developer says they hope to commence working on-site no later than January/February of 2021 given the shortage of new homes in the market at present.

An Bord Pleanála has given an estimated decision date of October 27, however, it's understood the Covid-19 restrictions could have a bearing on whether this timeline is met or not.

A 430-metre section of a new distributor road linking Coosan and Cornamaddy on the northern end of the site also forms part of the project, the documents show, including two bus bays to cater for future bus services running along the Cornamaddy-Coosan Link Road, an objective of the Athlone Town Development Plan 2014-2020 and proposed in both the Cornamaddy Action Area Plan and the Cornamagh Local Area Plan in recent years.

“The main access to the development will be via a new entrance on Coosan Road opposite The Glen Park creating a 4-arm crossroads,” the planning documents reveal.

In addition, the “main two spine roads that traverse the development will connect into the distributor road at both ends providing access to Cornamaddy and Coosan once the link road is completed,” it adds.

A detailed Traffic Impact Study and a Road Safety Audit have been conducted as part of the pre-planning process, and the final road network has been designed to take account of the design changes requested by the local authority, a Castlestar (Athlone) Ltd spokesperson states this week.

The planning documents also reveal that a high-level study of a much wider area has been carried out “to ensure the technical viability to the full extension of the Cornamaddy-Coosan Link Road, from the Coosan Point Road to the L8048 northwest of the roundabout on the N55, with a total length of 2km approximately.”

However, the applicant stresses that “this future road project (except for the 430m section within this planning application) will be subject to its own separate planning and design process.”

The houses earmarked for the site spanning the townlands of Cornamagh, Clonbrusk, and Coosan, are primarily three and four-bed housing units or 237 of the 426 planned.

The remainder are a range of apartments of varying sizes – one bed, two bed, three bed, and duplex units –in 13 different blocks.

There is an opportunity for public submissions to An Bord Pleanála within a five-week period once the full application has been lodged and advertised.

Mayor of Athlone, Cllr Aengus O'Rourke, who described the project as a major development for the town, has invited the developers to give a presentation to members of Athlone Municipal District for information purposes, and he is hopeful that will happen soon.

Full details of the planning application a large amount of related documentation is available at http://www.dunanriathloneshd.com/