Re: Re: What future for housing estates?

Here’s a few ideas

10/acre housing estates don’t change beyond infill and remain a comparative waste of space for those who like gardens and driving to the shop to buy cigarettes.
Zoning rules change slowly to allow subdivision of large houses into smaller units and smaller back graden minimum sizes. (like what happened in Rathmines)
Zoning rules change to allow demolishing houses and rebuilding to 3/4/5 storeys.
Council CPO’s the whole estate at 150% of current value and rezones the lot at higher density and sells on to a developer (land with housing currently worth around 3m/acre, CPO @4.5m.acre, sell on for 6m/acre
Build housing down the middle of the housing estate streets, ban cars from entering the estate, put multi-storey car parks at the estate entrances, build shops in the center of the estate. Do this to the neighbouring estates and connect em up with an underground the terminates in the city centre. (OK this one is not going to happen)

scenarios 2 and 3 above largely cover what I am researching for my dissertation and if you read the DLR county development plan, are not only likely but broadly encouraged to happen. DLR is ina population decline spiral since 1986 in certain areas due to too low density (mostly middle-class) housing. The argument that the demographics will right themselves over time don’t really apply in such high market value housing so intensificatioin is the only way forward. The same thing re: subdivision of large houses happened in London in the 80’s and will no doubt start to happen in Ballinteer, Foxrock, clonskeagh etc. I meant to post on this forum at some stage to see if any architects have any ideas or have ever worked on converting a 4 bed semi-d into 2 duplexes/apts etc. so I am interested in seeing what other pple think on this issue.