City planners have given the green light for Tonery's Bar in Bohermore to be demolished and replaced with a hotel.
The original plan was for 3 floors over ground floor, and 2 floors below - offering a total of 182 bedrooms.
The plans received a very high volume of submissions heralding the project as a positive development for the future of the area.
But they weren't without their detractors, with a consistent issue being the hotel offering no car parking, and how that would impact on traffic.
Other submissions claimed it’s not a hotel but effectively a hostel, given it has no bar or restaurant, and has no benefit for local residents.
But city planners have now approved the plans, though with almost 30 conditions attached.
The most significant is that the plans must be redesigned to remove the third floor, in the interest of visual amenity and the protection of residential amenity.
That will inevitably mean a considerable reduction in the number of bedrooms at the hotel.
Developer Carra Shore Hotel (Galway) Limited now has a month to appeal those conditions to An Bord Pleanala, if they chose to do so.
