Appeal lodged in bid to overturn refusal of second supermarket plan in Monksland
MCS River Village Limited has lodged an appeal to An Bord Pleanála in bid to revive plans for a second supermarket in Monksland.
The developer is hoping to overturn the refusal verdict handed down by Roscommon County Council last month.
The proposal envisaged a single-storey supermarket spanning over 2,200 square metres gross with an off-licence sales area on a green field site, close to Joe Duffy Motors and the Athlone Springs Hotel.
Several of the engineering drawings submitted with the plans initially lodged on September 27, were headed "Lidl Store Athlone, Roscommon" which had heightened the prospect of the German discounter coming to the rapidly growing Athlone westside suburb.
At the time of going to press, the grounds of the appeal are unclear as the documents have yet to be uploaded on the Roscommon County Council website.
The local authority turned down the proposal for a second Monksland supermarket in late November on three separate grounds, the first being that as the store would form part of the District Centre zone, and in the local authority's view the store would not “provide an integrated mixed land use approach” to the development of the land as set out in Monksland/Bealnamulla Local Area Plan.
It would, the planners in Roscommon County Council contended, militate against the Athlone Joint Retail Strategy for the River Village Area to “develop as a mixed use centre”.
If permitted in isolation, the council pointed out that it would result in “a single retail operator development” which would be “car dependent” without connectivity or integration into the surrounding District Centre zoned lands.
The local council was also unhappy with the “generic design approach” planned which it stated was “lacking in architectural merit” and would fail to provide a “unique sense of place in the commercial area”.
The directors of MCS River Village Ltd are listed on the planning file as Michael and Catherine Smith, with a company address of 1 Terenure Place, Terenure, Dublin.
According to the An Bord Pleanála website, the case is due to be decided by April 29 next year.