Imagine planners in Paris approving a multi-storey car-park 20 yards from the Arc de Triomphe. That's how Ms Jackie Ui Chionna describes the impact of a car-park scheme recently approved by Galway Corporation on a site within the medieval city walls. St Nicholas's Collegiate Church, Lynch's Window, Bowling Green - these are just some of the landmarks within a horn blow of the location, stretching from Market Street to the green.
Owned by Naughton's, the city shop which recently closed, the area is now used as a surface car-park for 80 vehicles. Shortly before Christmas, Galway Corporation approved a plan for a 300-space, six-storey car-park, with offices fronting onto Market Street and 15 apartments with roof terraces fronting onto Bowling Green. The plan, submitted by Rubelen Ltd, was a revised application. The car-park will be open 24 hours, seven days a week.
The corporation's decision has many locals and parishioners of St Nicholas's church up in arms. Bowling Green Residents' Association, of which Ms Ui Chionna is secretary, has lodged an appeal with An Bord Pleanala. So has St Nicholas's church.
"A flat-roofed, monolithic slab-like structure" which will be "extremely damaging to the townscape" is how the Very Rev Dr Robert McCarthy, rector of St Nicholas's, describes the proposal. He says if the car-park is constructed, the view of the church from the Salmon Weir bridge and the riverside walk will be obliterated.
The residents of Bowling Green emphasise the adverse impact which the development will have on what is one of the last living communities in Galway's city centre. They claim the terraces of two-storey, pitched-roof houses, designated as conservation areas in the 1998 Galway Draft Development Plan, will be overshadowed by the structure.
The Nora Barnacle residence on the green is one of Ireland's few literary houses, with a valuable Joyce collection. Nestling under St Nicholas's clocktower, the house was bought and restored by sisters Ms Sheila Gallagher and Ms Mary Gallagher. They describe the plan as a "monster".
The proposed 55-foot stairs tower to the car-park will "dominate the streetscape", say the Bowling Green residents. They also claim the elevation of the apartments is not in keeping with the character of the green, that the car-park will attract traffic into the area and that the 24-hour opening will affect local residents.
Also opposing the plan are the Galway branch of An Taisce and Cairde na Gaillimhe. In An Taisce's view, the car-park will be out of scale and will be "totally contrary" to sustainable local traffic management.
An Taisce says the current corporation focus is towards pedestrianisation of the city centre. The development would funnel traffic into the area. The timing of approval has also been questioned by An Taisce and Cairde na Gaillimhe, coming before the publication of the Galway Transportation and Planning Study. This study, due in March, may recommend an expansion of public transport and "park and ride" schemes to the city centre.
According to Mr Mark Green, of Cairde na Gaillimhe, the corporation appears to have been sympathetic to the developers' financial deadline. Tax incentives for multi-storey car-parks, which no longer apply in Dublin, can still be availed of in Galway if the developers can prove that 15 per cent of costs have already been spent by June of last year.
"Why Galway Corporation should take this step when the European trend is towards keeping cars out of city centres beats us," says Mr Green.
The Bowling Green Residents' Association and St Nicholas's church are seeking an oral hearing. Significantly, the developers have lodged an appeal to several of the conditions attached to the permission.
Mr Joe Gavin, Galway city manager, says the corporation considered the scheme to be "appropriate" but the matter is now with An Bord Pleanala.
Last week, a proposal for a second central car-park at Newtownsmyth was rejected when Galway city council secured only 10 of the 11 votes necessary for a material contravention of the city plan.
