Permission refused for Letterkenny Wellness and Sauna facility
Proposal rejected due to setting an ‘undesirable and unsustainable precedent’
Donegal County Council has refused planning permission for the creation of a wellness and sauna facility in Letterkenny.
The decision to refuse an application by Kaizen Wellness Ltd was made as it was considered approving the application “would constitute the disorderly overdevelopment of a constrained plot in a manner which would by itself, and by undesirable and unsustainable precedent.”
Kaizen Wellness Ltd’s unsuccessful application was for the change of use of an overspill car park and former stone masons’ yard and workshop off Pearse Road, Letterkenny, to a new wellness, recreation and sauna facility.
The facility was planned to include single-storey saunas, changing rooms, toilet facilities, a reception, ancillary refreshment facilities, external hot tubs, showers, and cold plunge areas.
Margot Schweitzer of MacGabhann Architects wrote in a cover letter supporting the failed application: “The existing site is quite unattractive in its current form and significantly detracts from the local urban environment, adjacent to a protected structure.
“The scale and nature of the site mean that it is not suitable for many types of development or improvement. The development proposed here will fit well in the site and its urban location, and indeed will make a significant contribution to improving the urban environment in Letterkenny.
“The Planning Authority should see this proposal as an opportunity for urban improvement, which might be lost if not taken up at this time.”
However, a Planner’s Report recommended that planning be refused, with the given reason: “Having regard to the overall siting and location of the proposed wellness facility and the constrained and narrow nature of the subject site between the adjoining river and Regional Road, it is considered that the proposed development, if permitted, would constitute the disorderly overdevelopment of a constrained plot in a manner which would by itself, and by undesirable and unsustainable precedent, be contrary to Policy ED-P-9 of the County Donegal Development Plan 2024-2030 and to the proper planning and orderly development of the site.
Accordingly, to permit the proposed development would thereby be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.”
If the applicant wishes to make an appeal to An Coimisiún Pleanála regarding Donegal County Council’s decision, they have four weeks from the date of the current decision to do so.