A proposal for a development comprising a shopping centre, 152 apartments and townhouses and a five-storey hotel in the village of Barna, outside Galway city, has met with opposition.
Over 100 objections to the planning application by Bomac Properties have already been lodged with Galway County Council.
Residents have joined forces to protect the picturesque seaside village against a number of proposed construction projects which, they claim, would totally overwhelm the area.
A voluntary group called Pobal Bearna has been set up to object to a number of planning applications by different developers which would lead to the development of a total of 320 residential units.
The group is in favour of the village being developed sensitively on a smaller scale, and does not want to see large-scale, urban-style developments.
Its main objection is against Bomac's proposal for a town centre on a shoreline site at Freeport. The development also includes retail and commercial units, a restaurant, office units, and eight underground car parks.
Permission for an "aparthotel" - an apartment complex with hotel services - has already been granted, to be built in place of the landmark Twelve Pins Hotel.
A spokesperson for Pobal Bearna stressed that the group felt that development in the area should be compatible with the character, heritage and needs of the village.
Sewage pipe-laying works, which would link the proposed village residential and commercial units to the Mutton Island treatment plant, have led to long traffic delays in the area since June.
In its objection to the Bomac application, Pobal Bearna points out that the village is an area of high scenic amenity with views of Galway Bay, the Burren and the Aran Islands.
It states that the existing physical infrastructure of Barna village could not accommodate such a large-scale development which, it says, is out of character with the area in terms of its sheer size, scale, intensity design and materials.
The residents point out that pupil capacity at Barna National School is overstretched and that a new school is needed.
Access to the proposed development would also create public safety and traffic congestion problems, they contend, and the construction and blasting work would create nuisance problems.
The Pobal Bearna spokesperson pointed out that what the village needed was non-commercial, community facilities. There was no community centre, children's playground or park.
"There is nothing in the Bomac development that addresses in any worthwhile way the absence of these essential community facilities."
