NAAS 21 January 2003: Naas’s town manager is to recommend a material contravention to the Naas Development Plan 1999 tonight when he proposes that a rezoning to allow a 9-screen cinema complex in Millennium Park (above) should go ahead.
The material contravention, which proposes the change from the current industrial zoning to allow such an amenity, is on the agenda for discussion and voting at tonight’s meeting of Naas Town Council.
It will require six of the nine councillors to vote in favour for the rezoning to be passed.
The 4,434 sq m cineplex was previously planned for adjoining Oldtown Demesne where land has already been rezoned amenity for this purpose as well as a bowling alley.
The applicant is IMC (Naas) Ltd with an address in Millennium Park.
Lands at the ‘high tech business park’ are zoned industrial/wholesale and the cineplex would not be in accordance with that zoning, hence the need for a material contravention.
Objectors include Lesley-Anne Kavanagh whose home is adjacent to the site entrance. She has objected on a number of grounds including including safety and access. She says the proposed development ‘would represent a traffic hazard due to the fact that there is only one entrance/exit’ to the proposed site. She also says traffic volume and noise associated with it is inappropriate for a residential area and that further accesses should be provided prior to the start of future development.
Ms Kavanagh believes the visual impact and construction traffic associated with the proposed development would devalue properties in the vicinity and that ‘the residential amenity of the property of the area will be affected negatively by the Millennium Park, which is unreasonable in an established residential area’.
The Sallins Road Action Group (SRAG) which represents numerous estates in the area points out that land is already zoned within the Oldtown Estate for a multiplex cinema, bowling and leisure complex. A cinema, nursing home and school were earmarked for Oldtown by the developers who were also seeking upmarket housing for the demesne in the 1999 Town Plan.
SRAG also say the proposed new Millennium Park site for the cineplex is located on lands zoned for other purposes and that the applicant has deviated from original intention to provide a Science & Technology Park there, flagged to provide thousands of jobs for the area.
SRAG also fears that the applicant intends ‘creating a mini-town’ at this new location. While they welcome recreational development, they say the location is ‘inappropriate’ and would be too far out from the town for people to walk. They say the amenity zoned site in Oldtown would be a more suitable location.
The town manager says such a cineplex does not exist anywhere in the county and believes there are around 70,000 people within a 30 minute drive of the proposed facility. Naas currently has a two-screen cinema, The Dara Cinema, on Main Street.
The proposed cinema complex would be located in a 'Park Centre' near the new interchange with the motorway, according to Michael Mullaly (right) chief executive of Millennium Park. Other facilities to be proposed for the centre there will include a hotel, leisure centre, shop, and creche.
"It was always envisaged that that such a Park Centre was an essential for Millennium Park," Mr Mullally told KNN today. "In fact, it has been one of the difficulties we've faced when potential clients come to view the site, that we don't have these in place, because they are necessary in any modern Business Park to give the employees the quality of working life that they demand today."
Contrary to some speculation in Naas, the proposers of the cinema are not a Dublin group, but rather the principals behind Millennium Park itself. KNN understands that if the project gets the green light, the cinema would be operated by specialists in that area on a contract basis.
