Killarney councillors have heard that Lower New Street is the front runner as the location for a multi-story car park in the town.
A presentation on development suitability of council owned car parks was given at yesterday's municipal district meeting.
Senior engineer David Doyle outlined site options and initial designs for Kerry County Council’s eight Killarney car parks.
An engineering assessment rated the towns car parks under a number of criteria, including vehicle access points, traffic congestion, income and building heights.
This showed that Lower New Street car park, and Lewis Road car park were the top two options based on the assessment.
Councillors heard a three-floor, 516 space multi-story with roof parking at New Street Lower car park is the front runner.
Members heard this would see a net gain of 297 spaces, at a development cost of €12.7 million.
A four-floor, 320 space multi-story on the existing Lewis Road car park, has an estimated cost of €8.6 million.
Cllrs Niall Kelleher and Maura Healy-Rae advised this would be their preferred location, given it’s proximity to the proposed primary care centre and community theater at the Arás Phádraig site; adding the proposed redevelopment of Fitzgerald stadium, and eventual bypass are also factors.
Cllr Martin Grady aired his concern at this location, stating that residents in the area wouldn’t like to be looking out at a high rise multi-story car-park.
Independent councillor Niall Botty O’Callaghan said the town has been waiting over 17 years for such a development; adding it needs to be a priority project and needs to be delivered.
Labour councillor Marie Moloney asked had the council investigated the ground underneath these sites in its assessment.
She echoed Cllr O’Callaghan’s words that Killarney is built on bog, with many springs and folly streams as potential underlying issues, that need to be investigated at these sites.
Cllr Moloney added that the New Street Lower car park would be ideal if it could include a viewing point on top of the roof as a potential tourist attraction.
Kerry Independent Alliance councillor John O’Donoghue commended the council on the research, adding the new street lower car park has been proposed by councillors all along, adding it’s good that this is the preferred site.
Council engineer David Doyle advised members that no detailed designs have been explored in relation to the car park options; and said funding options will have to be explored for the project.
Cllr Brendan Cronin said the public have been crying out for this development for years and asked why hasn’t this been progressed or delivered yet.
Councillors asked when will they see a car parking strategy for the town.
In response, Kerry County Council said this will be brought to elected members very shortly.
