Revealed: Councillors have agreed to re-zone the vacant Braun site in Carlow Town

Councillors have agreed to re-zone the vacant Braun site in Carlow Town after the local authority was contacted by the property owner. 

Last year the Planning Authority received a formal request to consider a proposed variation to the Joint Spatial Plan for the Carlow/Graiguecullen Greater Urban Area 2012-2018 "seeking to amend the land-use zoning on the Braun site from Industrial to Enterprise and Employment".

Under Section 13 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended), the planning authority may at any time, for stated reasons, decide to make a variation of a development plan. 

Members voted by a show of hands in September to put the proposed change on public display and it came before the members again for ratification at a full meeting of the local authority this month and it was approved. 

The former site of the German manufacturing plant was closed in 2009 but at one stage, it was the biggest employer in Carlow with 1,400 workers.

The request states that the proposed variation incorporating a change in the land use zoning "would make the site more attractive to hi-tech and office based industries thereby facilitating a range of new office facilities on the site".

Speaking at a full meeting of Carlow County Council in September of last year, chief executive of the Council, Kathleen Holohan said the suggestion for the re-zoning came from the property owner. 

The re-zoning means the lands can be used for enterprise and employment uses, that do not generate emissions including campus-style offices, storage and warehousing uses, wholesaling and distribution, commercial services with high space and parking requirements where it may not be possible to find a town centre location.