Major Kells town centre plan back on

THE huge €125 million proposal to develop a new town centre in Kells looks back on this week, after developers Kells Development Company Ltd signalled its intention to submit a new planning application for the 19.32 acre land block it owns at the Backlands. Full details are expected to be lodged with the Meath County Council"s planning office later this week. If granted, the huge project will transform the commercial heart of Kells and lead to the creation of hundreds of new jobs. Following extensive contacts between the developers and council planners in advance of the submission of the application, there is growing confidence in Kells that this new application will succeed. The company was refused planning permission in August 2007 by planners on a number of grounds, chief among which was the narrowness of access to a proposed new street which is set to run parallel to Bective Street. Kells Development Company initially appealed the decision to Bord Pleanála but, last April, withdrew the appeal after acquiring Hetherton"s garage premises at the junction of Farrell Street, Suffolk Street and Bective Street. The firm already owned two adjoining houses alongside the Presbyterian Church and Iona Hall. The wider entry this acquisition gave to the three-street junction is understood to have resolved the major planning hurdle, the subject of numerous meetings between the firm"s principals and planners over the past year. The original planning application envisaged 400 permanent jobs with some 350 construction jobs during a two-year building process. This would be centred on 36 retail units, the biggest of these an anchor tenant taking a 55,000sq ft unit. The revised application is broadly in line with the original plan. It proposes a mixed use town centre with retail, residential, commercial, creche, civic space and ancillary buildings. This involves 199 residential units, 15,833m of retail and commercial units with 961 parking spaces and 224 cycling spaces. The Townspark site is bounded by Farrell and Bective Streets, Kenlis Place and the playing fields of Kells Community School. The plan proposes a new street alignment at the Suffolk-Farrell-Bective Streets junction, with the new street running parallel to Bective Street and featuring a number of multi-storey buildings. The first would be four-storey, housing a creche and two retail units at ground level, six office units at first, second, and third floor levels. The second and third multi-storey buildings would both be three-storey, containing 24 two-bed apartments, while building four would have 22 apartments over its four floors, eight of which would be three-bed. The four-storey fifth building proposed will have 12 retail units at ground floor, 42 apartments and parking for 64 cars at basement level, while two further multi-storey buildings will be similarly designed to the north of the new street, with extensive parking adjoining the major anchor tenant retail units. A series of terraced townhouses are also planned, with a total open space of 15,295sq m including hard and soft landscaped areas, a stream park, and civic square of 4,100sq m. Internal roads running for 1,487m are also to be built, while both the garage and adjoining two houses at the Farrell, Suffolk and Bective Streets junction are slated for demolition to facilitate a new entrance junction. Kells Development Company"s principal shareholders include Lagan Developments, Finbar McLoughlin of MCL Developments and Cusack Homes. An environmental impact statement is being submitted by the firm, with the plans drawn up by OKB Architects. Kells Chamber of Commerce has restated its strong support for the Kells Development Company"s application, with a spokesperson describing it this week as the most important prospect of major investment in the town"s retail and commercial future for decades. The Chamber has been lobbying for the opening up of the Backlands for some years and made the case to local councillors and planners that a major scheme was needed to end the haemorrhage of local shoppers to such towns as Navan, Blanchardstown and Cavan. The spokesperson said the revised Kells Development Company proposal showed signs of very thorough discussions between the developers and planners, meeting any concerns about access into the new lands. She stressed that the Chamber"s concerns to ensure that the old town benefited through this opening up of the land had been met by the many access points for both pedestrians and traffic between the Backlands and existing streets. The prospect of such a major construction project alone offered a major spending boost at a time when the national economy was slowing down, she added, but even better in the long term for Kells was the prospect of shoppers not merely staying in town, but many more coming in to avail of market-leading multiples set to become the anchor tenants in the new development. The Chamber"s support for the project hinged on ensuring the whole town benefited from the opening up of the Backlands and the revised plan offered a very positive prospect for both retail and commercial development in both new and older sections of the town centre, added the Chamber spokesperson. The likelihood of the project getting underway any earlier than 2010 has been discounted by observers locally but there has been a warm welcome for the revised plans from most quarters. Kells Town Council cathaoirleach Brian Collins said the revised scheme was very welcome at a time of economic slowdown. He believed the shopping 'footfall" in Kells would substantially increase as a result, with existing retailers set to benefit from such a rising tide. He paid tribute to council planners, officials, councillors and all relevant landowners for their patience over recent years. The entire north of the county would benefit from the vastly-improved retail range in Kells, drawing many more shoppers in and reversing the long pattern of locals shopping in multiples in neighbouring larger towns, he added. He believed it would be 'some years' before construction was completed but other developers could then move on their proposals for their sections of the Backlands. It is understood that the flooding survey carried out for the Backlands, and funded by the developers, will be reviewed following the 16th August downpour, which almost resulted in damage to the Headfort Road storm drains, owing to the attentuated pipes from the Backlands feeding the rainfall runoff so quickly into the drainage system. The town"s new waste water scheme (sewerage) is set for completion by mid-2010 with the separation of storm-water run off from the Headfort Road sewage works an important element of this. This seems likely to obviate any future flooding concerns. The new Kells Development Company planning application proposes approximately the same size of retail, commercial and housing development as its initial plan, both of which were in accordance with the 2006 Local Area Plan approved for the Backlands by both town and area county councillors. Meetings to review progress were held between councillors and officials last April, amid continuing close consultation with the Kells Development Company principals.