Re: Re: well what about the developments popping up in the shannonside ?

@mopeds wrote:

Hi All
I read this morning that planning has been granted for Coonagh Cross Shopping Centre, Does anybody else think that Limerick has too many suburban shopping centres (Mostly Council built).
Bring on the boundary extension quick please or we will have no City Centre left

Coonagh Shopping Centre: Link http://www.coonaghcross.com/home.htm

Limerick city and it’s three local authorities with their different strategies (Rates).

The Limerick City Council is against the development on the grounds that it would be negative for the city centre. The dreaded doughnut effect. But they fear more, that the lost rates due could be spent elsewhere.

The Clare County Council is passively indifferent and expects to see further developments spill over into its jurisdiction fueling more adhoc expansion of the city (Coonagh-Cratloe) on the scale of Dooradoyle-Raheen or Castletroy-Annacotty. It can look forward to more rates.

The Limerick County Council has given the development the thumps up. They have the authority as to how the city expands to the west, south and east of the city centre. They in effect administer the better-well-off parts of the city (only private housing estates, the University Campus, two large industrial parks , two major shopping centres and the Mid-Western-Hospital-complex).

The Development itself has it’s merits and faults.

The location will be central for the future expansion of the city to theWest / Northwest.
Just like the Cresent Shopping Centre plays a role for Dooradoyle.

I like the planned link-road running at the back of Caherdavin and therefore opening up the Moyross and Ballynanty housing estates thus giving the residents there more access to shopping and services. Those local authority housing estates have been totally isolated with only one access road to the city centre and up on to recently very few shopping amenities.

Proposed Quality Bus Corridor to site Boundary. This will probally mean a bus lane from Coognagh Cross along the Ennis road to the city centre. The 2.700 free car parking spaces at the shopping centre could inadvertently become Limerick’s first Park-and-Ride system!
Will a direct bus service operate between the shopping centre and Moyross-Ballynanty?

The interior quality of the shopping malls will raise the competition level especially with the city centre department stores who seem to be content with a new coat of paint (Roches) or a refurbished canopy (Brown Thomas).

Planned separate pedestrian footpaths and cycleways to reinforce links with the surrounding residential estates or will the development’s accessibility be mainly car-fueled?

Images Map and Plan