Vacant Mayo property will be converted into office and apartments

Mayo County Council has approved planning permission for a development that will see a three-storey vacant town centre building turned into office space and apartments.

Yewtree Ventures Ltd sought approval for change of use of the existing vacant house on Ellison Street in Castlebar.

The building will become four ground floor offices/studios and two upper floor apartments within the existing building envelope together with the demolition of a rear section of the existing building, The site is located on Ellison Street in the centre of Castlebar and is occupied by an existing vacant three-storey property. The building on site has most recently been used as a dwelling house. There is a rear vehicular access to the site via a private lane which links the building to Castle Street.

“The provision of a commercial element at ground floor level with apartments above is welcomed in conjunction with bring this building back into use on such a central location within Castlebar Town Centre. The principle of the proposed change of use within an existing retail store on Town Centre zoned lands is considered acceptable,” commented council planners.

The proposed development has detailed a substantial communal open space on the submitted site layout plan which would be bounded by a low retaining wall (215mm) which ensures passive surveillance of the car park area to the south east end of the site. “While the private amenity serving the apartments are very small rear balconies taking into consideration the generous communal space and the nature of the development the open space areas as provided are considered appropriate in this instance,” said the local authority.

Planning permission has been granted subject to a number of conditions.

It is stipulated that all works should be monitored by a suitably qualified archaeologist under Licence from the National Monuments Section, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

When the demolition works are completed and prior to the commencement of any other construction or groundworks the developer is required to employ a suitably qualified archaeologist to undertake a programme of licensed Archaeological Pre-development Testing across the proposed development site.

Should archaeological material be uncovered during the course of the monitoring/ testing, the archaeologist shall have work on the site stopped, pending a decision as to how best to deal with the archaeology.