ShaneP

The Park Canal project sounds fairly interesting. It’s a really nice walk out to UL from town especially where the canal rejoins the Shannon at Rhebogue? it’s complete wilderness, with not a buildng in sight – one of a number of great but overlooked wildlife corridors into the city along with the marshes in Corbally and around Barringtons Pier/ Northern Approach Road, so fingers crossed a decent job gets done. The last part of the plan doesn’t exactly inspire confidence though,”Phase 2 of the project cannot be fully defined at this time as it would involve substantial inputs from the private sector as development schemes are brought forward. ” especially given the fact that new housing estates can already be seen along the Dublin Road.

The info on the pedestrianisation project came from a leaflet got from The Limerick co-ordination office on O’Connell St. about a year ago. No start date was mentioned, but it seems the opening of the Shannon Tunnel in 2009, is the most likely date.

Here’s a bit on the LImerick PLUTS (Planning Land Use and Transportation Strategy) – from the Limerick Leader 22/12/01

Expansion in city and towns strong
By DEARBHLA LOOBY

SMALLER family sizes in the mid-west region mean that the number of households will grow by about 50 per cent by 2026.

This is one of the forecasts in the Limerick Planning, Land Use and Transportation Study presented to Limerick City Council by Malcolm Buchanan of Colin Buchanan and Partners, consultants at this week’s meeting.

The report covers the city and a radius of abut 25 miles, including Newcastle West, Kilmallock, Foynes, Nenagh and Ennis.

The study deals with the period from 1996 to 2026, and predicts also that the total population in the area will grow by between 47,000 and 58,000, to approximately 260,000 in the next 20 years.

The present populations (incuding suburbs) of the larger centres are: Limerick 83,000; Ennis 18,000; Shannon 8,000; Nenagh 6,000; Newcastle West 4,000. These are all growing strongly, but some smaller villages are still declining.

The report also estimates that the labour force will grow by 42 to 48 per cent.

It pointed out that there are currently nearly 1,400 hectares of land zoned for residential development in the region.

“This could accommodate over 30,000 new homes, which means that 90 per cent of the estimated increase in housing demand could be accommodated on existing residentially zoned land,” Mr Buchanan said.

He said it was the consultants view that this land should be used for residential development. “It should as far as possible be focused within transport corridors. Good residential layouts with access for through bus services which can link the new settlements to shops, workplaces, schools, etc are in our view more important than exceptionally high densities in making the new developments sustainable.”

The study found that the road network in the region has many weaknesses.

“There are significant delays through town centres, especially Limerick. Roads are of poor quality, particularly away from the primary route network, and poor connections to some areas such as Foynes. There is poor maintenance of the roads and high accident rate. Many of these problems will tend to get worse as traffic increases,” Mr Buchanan said.

He pointed out that a programme of road scheme for the area has already been assembled by the NRA, the three county councils, Limerick Corporation and their consultants.

“This study, PLUTS, has therefore concentrated on looking beyond the construction of these committed and planned schemes, and has identified nearly 30 links in the road network where more capacity is needed by 2026. Within Limerick itself, further road widening or construction has to be considered in the light of the needs of the environment, pedestrians, cyclists, busses and freight deliveries. The opportunity exists to exploit the capacity released on the city centre network as a result of the Southern Ring Road and fourth river crossing,” he commented.

He expressed concern that this released capacity could easily be eroded by the proposed crossing tolls, which could divert traffic back into the city centre. “We suggest that a city centre traffic management scheme could prevent this from occurring and also prevent toll revenue being eroded.”

City manager Brendan Keating said a final presentation on the consultation findings in the study would be made in February.

“The findings to date stem from detailed study and a consultation process. The study has been on display for some time and has attracted considerable interest. Views expressed by a number of people have been incorporated in the report,” he said.

Knew I saw it mentioned somewhere before – got a 3/4 page mention in the current city development plan – google searches yielded various bits of it. Here’s a link to one part –

http://www.limerickcdb.ie/images/strategy.pdf

More from the promo –

Here’s an image of the warehouse referred to earlier on (apologies for the picture quality). It’s from that Judith Hill book too.

Just saw a planning notice in the Leader for another hotel – at the corner of Pery Sq/ Barrington St – sounds like a small enough development involving the restoration of a Georgian house and a five storey addition to the rear. As for the development at Punches Cross – it was supposed to be a hotel with the original pub left intact, but it seems to have been put on hold for a while. There’s going to be a lot of hotels… and dunnes stores’ in Limerick when it’s all finished! Got this picture of Pery Sq from this website –

County Hall, Dooradoyle –

Don’t really know the area too well, and was only there at night, so apart from the view from the main road it’s difficult to know what the place is really like. Guess suburbia is inevitable in this age and if it happens well it’s usually better if it’s stuck on to an existing village rather than growing out of nothing. In the mean time here’s a few photos from my archive for anyone still unfamiliar with Limerick –

That’s what makes them all the more disappointing – i’d be tearing my hair out if I had any. Surely we could have expected so much better from that practice?

Well. I still can’t believe you approve of that heap on Edward St., Dave123.

If it lasts half as long as the Savoy did, i’d be surprised. It’s not only the fact that it looks cheap, which bothers me – the whole project appears to be the product of a lazyminded approach by architects, developer and planners. It is the epitomy of everything that’s wrong with new developments in Limerick today (as described by Ash1 a few weeks ago)

As far back as 1991, a report was published on the success or otherwise of the first urban renewal schemes throughout the country – Murray O’laoire were involved in preparing that report, which included a section on the design of city centre apartment schemes. One of the many observations made was that new developments should have a variety of unit sizes to ensure a good social mix, as is the norm in the rest of Europe, so what do we end up with in Limerick, 14 years later – a block of 33 two bed apartments on Edward St and another one of c.135 two bed apartments on William St. – These lessons should be well learned at this stage as there are enough examples in this country and elsewhere of successful apartment schemes. It’s pretty disheartening to say the least.

On a related point, is anyone aware of an apartment scheme in Ireland which includes a service lift and entrance (which allows for apartments to be renovated or upgraded without inconveniencing other residents or closing off roads and footpaths to accomodate cranes etc.)?

As for Annacotty, it is good to see the place looking a bit more lively these days – the new bars etc have been hopping the couple of times i was out there, and the river makes a great backdrop to the village, long live Annacotty! – I guess Dunnes Stores will have to open a branch or two there soon though, given the rate at which they seem to be proliferating in Limerick. 3 new stores in as many years, can’t help but wonder are they trying to take over the world? There’s plenty of room in my hot press or perhaps under the sink if they’re stuck for sites and there’s easily enough room on the chimney for a spar, centra and vodaphone outlet if they want to make a bit of a shopping centre out of it!

Is the demolition of the Savoy still in progress? Saw it during the first couple of days and it was fairly spectacular – the wrecking ball/ drill cut straight through the building ,the tv screens for the bowling alleys were hanging on by a thread, and you could see straight thru’ a section of the cinemas. Hope there’s a new cinema in town to replace it soon. Don’t think ther’s any risk of oversupply in in the hotel sector though Tuborg – seems a good no.of them are reporting 90% occupancy since all those Ryanair flights started out of Shannon. It was reported in the Post recently that there wasn’t a single room available in the city one weekend and if the convention centre gets built there’ll be capacity for plenty more. It’s the best idea to come about in years, a development that would suit Limerick perfectly. Did quite a bit of research on the subject for my thesis last year so will stick it up here soon – as it’s undergoing major reconstructive surgery at the moment, if any one’s interested.

From Limerick Post – 12/8/05

Demolition of St Mary’s Park?

Marie Hobbins
A LOCAL councillor’s claim that the 450 houses in St Mary’s Park will be demolished to make way for a new housing estate has been rubbished by Defence Minister, Willie O’Dea. He told the Limerick Post on Wednesday that such a plan is “definitely not on the Government’s agenda”.

But Cllr John Gilligan categorically states that demolition of the houses, built in the 1930s, will proceed as part of a major regeneration plan for St Mary’s Park.

Confirming that a study has been prepared for the regeneration of St Mary’s Park, Noeleen Ryan, co-ordinator for the RAPID (Revitalising Areas by Planning Investment and Development) Programme for the inner city said: “This has gone to the Department of the Environment for approval but the Government has told us that we will get regeneration. In order to secure this we have to put a strategy in place to cover all aspects of the area – social, economic, environmental, educational, etc as the plan is to regenerate and lift the entire area.

“A project manager will be appointed and a company formed – all the relevant agencies will have an impact, not just the local authority,” she said.

Part of the regeneration plan would be the construction of another road into St Mary’s Park and the development of new business to create employment in the area.

“The study has to go before Cabinet as capital funding will be required,” informs Ms Ryan

Minister O’Dea has emphatically dismissed any demolition plan for the housing estate and the Council’s Housing Committee member, Cllr Joe Leddin contends that it does not make sense that with millions recently invested in installing new windows and doors in the St Mary’s Park houses and a planned programme of central heating installation due to commence soon, that demolition of the houses is on the cards.

“These houses are not lined up for demolition – it would be nonsense to have put new doors and windows at such a huge cost into the houses, not to mention the central heating that is due to go in and two years later demolish them,” he said.

A contradictory view from Ms Ryan is that the central heating programme will commence in Lee Estate but will not progress to St Mary’s Park.

Adamant that demolition is very much on the agenda, Cllr Gilligan said: “The houses involved, built in the 1930s, are mass concrete – their life span is well past. Why shouldn’t they be demolished – it happened in Ballymun which was only built in the 1960s.”

Pointing out that the often maligned RAPID Programme is at last beginning to yield results, the councillor said that money is now being released for various new projects for King’s Island.

“We’re getting 900,000 euro for a new creche in St Mary’s Park, 120,000 euro for the Widows Alms Houses,27,000 euro for a roof to the Star Rovers Club, 40,000 to rail off their pitch and 50,000 for an all-weather pitch for the club. There’s also been tens of thousands invested in the refurbishment of local schools. Money is being released but I’m looking forward to the big one, the regeneration of St Mary’s Park.”

The Department of the Environment was not in a position to comment on the issue at the time of going to press.