Dunnes Stores has objected to a compulsory purchase order (CPO) being sought by Limerick County Council to develop an essential access road for the development of the west of the city.
Provision of the access road by Dunnes, a planning condition for its plan to extend its Ennis Road premises, has been held up for more than two years.
The road is also crucial to the development of the Caherdavin District Centre, a combined retail and community development plans which includes the Dunnes centre.
But the plan has stagnated since Dunnes was granted planning permission by An Bord Pleanβla in June, 1999 to develop an extra 40,000 sq ft of retail space. Dunnes currently has a 31,000 sq ft food and drapery store at the former Jetland Ballroom site.
The provision of the access road would also allow a second development, by Babette Ltd, to proceed immediately. Since December, 1999, Mr Michael Tiernan of Babette has had permission to build a 90,000 sq ft shopping centre, including a food hall, next door to Dunnes on condition that the road was built.
The road's provision would also open the way for Mr Pat Whelan and Mr Frank Woods of Shanvale Ltd to proceed with a retail development, also next door to Dunnes, but which is inside the corporation's municipal boundary. Shanvale has twice had planning permissions granted by Limerick Corporation, only to have them turned down by An Bord Pleanβla because it regards them as premature for traffic reasons.
"The scale of the proposed development alongside the heavily trafficked Ennis Road would endanger public safety by reason of traffic hazard.
"Until such time as the link road is in place, any redevelopment of this site would be premature," the appeals board said this summer when turning down Shanvale's application to build 46,000 sq ft of retail warehousing and a 3,000 sq ft motor sales showroom. This followed an objection by Babette to the plan.
An earlier application for a mixed 120,000 sq ft development of retail units, including a foodstore, and a nine-screen cinema also failed at the appeal stage after Dunnes lodged an objection.
The planned road, which would alleviate traffic between Clonmacken Road and the Ennis Road, is located on lands owned by Dunnes and Babette. Its construction was envisaged in the Brady Shipman Martin report on retail development in the city.
Dunnes were to build the entire road after reaching agreement with Babette and it was expected that all three developers would pay for the road before handling control of it over to the county council.
"This road was part of the retail study and the idea was that the three of them would have access to it," Mr Gerry Sheerin, a council senior planner, said. Mr Sheerin added that the grounds for the CPO request are to allow development of the Caherdavin area in accordance with its development plan. The council has not yet received details on the substance of the Dunnes complaint to that process. "We waited two years for something to be done. They were very keen to have a decision at the time," Mr Sheerin said.
A date for an oral hearing must now be set as part of the CPO process. A spokeswoman for Dunnes said the company had no comment to make except that it had fully co-operated and continued to co-operate with the county manager.
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