Frank Taylor

Originally posted by Diaspora

Two things will make or break your proposal.

Firstly the support of Dunloe Ewart i.e. Liam Carroll of Zoe developments fame, as he owns the bulk of the land concerned.

Why is the support of the developer needed? Is the devloper not obliged to build according to the local area plan (or not at all)?

Secondly the building of a rail link from Shanngannagh on the existing Dart line back to Sandyford i.e A dart running in the direction of Bray turning back towards Sandyford facilitated by a newly engineered spur line on the old Harcourt St to Bray link, LUAS is at capacity as it is and there is little or no hope of significant capacity increases as it is a light railway.

The DTO srategy was to upgrade the Luas to Cherrywood line to Metro by 2010. Is this extremely unlikely?

It is an interesting concept I’m just not sure that Cherrywood represents the best place to start it. There are many sites on the Western and Northern fringes that have direct access to a rail line

Point taken. Which sites are you thinking of?

good questions…

1> Given that LUAS is already at capacity how do you propose to move the passengers by rail?

I think that Luas capacity could be increased beyond 5-minute intervals with altered road signalling. Also the line could be upgraded to Metro.

If the Cherrywood line is extended to Shanganagh, then many people would opt to take a DART into town to arrive closer to their city destination than Stephen’s Green.

2> How would the office users receive deliveries?

I’m not sure I understand this question. Office users would receive postal deliveries from couriers on foot with wheely carts. (Or from couriers on bicycles).

3> Would the owners of the principal site go along with it?

The extra density should entice developers. Property in pedestrian areas of cities often commands very high property prices. I can imagine that many developers, naturally cautious and conservative would be pretty wary of a radical plan like this. I don’t know who owns the land in Cherrywood, but if the council zones it a certain way, the owners have no choice but to build in line with that zoning ( or not build at all).

4> How would you design the carparks, there would be a lot of cars and carparks are an extremely low density landuse?

The idea is that the district is roughly circular and that multi-storey car parks are built along the 2.5km periphery. You would expect that a car free district would have lower than normal car ownership rates with, for example, couples opting for one car.

The aim of the car free district is that many people can get through a normal day without having to use a car once.
Think school trips, commuting, shopping, entertainment.