Twenty six hectares of land will be required for residential zoning purposes in Ballyhaunis to cope with the expected development demands of the town up until 2018.
That’s according to Mayo County Council who are in the process of drafting the local area plan for the town.
The plan, which will be a blueprint for the development of Ballyhaunis from 2009 to 2015, is at post draft stage and is expected to be ready for implementation by December of this year.
The council received 22 written submissions from the public following the pre-draft public consultation process, many of which were group submissions. Over half of the submissions related to individual zoning requests, the local Claremorris electoral area councillors were informed this week.
Other submissions related to transport, traffic management, childcare, tourism, recreation amenities, and the friary among other issues.
The council have calculated that the average household in Ballyhaunis contains 2.5 persons and they made their calculations about the amount of land required for future zoning purposes based on this, with an additional 15 per cent added as some lands may not be available for development.
The council expects to have the draft plan on public display in July, the manager’s report completed by August and ready for consideration in September and the plan implemented by December.
This was welcomed by local Cllr John Cribben.
