There’s an announcement in the Irish Times today of a planned new town for Cork, 5km north of Cork city on the Mallow railway line. The town will have a predicted 5,000 dwellings on a 1,000 acre site bordering the rail line to cater for an estimated population of 13,000 (planning will continue over the next 18 months, but development will not start until the masterplan is approved by the Cork County Coucil and the housing market starts to recover). The site will have a Strategic Development Zone designation (as with Adamstown in South Dublin), which will allow it to bypass standard planning procedure, working to an approved masterplan instead. Regardless of questions concerning the need for a new town in Cork in the short term given the present levels of housing vacancy and oversupply in the city and county, the positive aspect of this announcement is that the development will be ‘plan-led’ as opposed to the adhocism that has characterised much planning in Ireland during the Celtic Tiger years. This means that infrastructure and services will be built in tandem with housing developments and be guided by principles of developing a sustainable community and underpinned by an agreed masterplan. The new town, should it go ahead, should have a relative degree of coherence with its inhabitants served by public transport, shops and public facilities such as schools, creches and health services from the get-go, rather than them lagging far behind. It might not be to everybody’s taste, but its good to see the SDZ approach being used, as a change in planning ethos and implementation away from cronyism, localism and adhocism is needed.
Rob Kitchin
Ireland after NAMA 
June 9, 2010 at 4:41 pm
If you believe that this process will lead to automatic coherent planning then I have to disagree. SDZ was used in Dublin, at Ballymun, and look what happened there!
Similar plans are being hatched for a new “self-contained” town at Ardaun in Galway. Yet this plan does’nt even straddle the Galway-Dublin rail line, but is further north and will depend on roads based transport in and out of Galway city.
In Doughuisce in Galway, residents are still awaiting schools, parks, sporting facilities and other promised amenities. While much substandard housing and many apartments just sprang up without any plan
June 9, 2010 at 5:11 pm
Derrick, I agree that SDZs are no automatic panacea and that things can go badly awry with them if not executed properly, but I am in favour of ‘plan-led’ development as opposed to cronyism and adhocism (often mascarading as ‘plan-led’ as per county development plans over the last number of years which have overzoned and allowed inappropriate development all over the country). Hopefully the forthcoming Amended Planning Bill will also help to move us towards joined-up thinking and coherence.
June 10, 2010 at 2:03 am
Yes. We need more development. But who wants or can afford to move there?
Unneeded infrastructure is waste.
We have plenty of it, badly planned and some of it badly executed as well.
The wheels of commerce…..
June 10, 2010 at 11:12 am
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/10213361.stm I think there is a lot to be gathered from this interview with Michael Taggart who is saying he intends to sue the banks who ‘ambushed’ his company in 2007 – 2008 and ‘put a gun to his head’. While there was no mention of those worked in the firm or who bought the houses only about his willingness to pay off creditors and investors at the end it is left with the washing of his hands regarding NAMA. There is an awful feeling gathering that people expect minor reforms of banking and planning will allow the construction industry to continue as was. As he says around 17:40:
“I think its exciting times, GOING FORWARD!” As regards his personal wealth and alleged champagne lifestyle and Lionel Rithchie and Van the Man playing at his wedding he didn’t like the drink and only had a tape of Morrison and these rumours had only been part of a negative PR campaign. He admitted the following:
“I live in Dungiven and a lot of my business was conducted in Dublin. Most people know that the roads between the two are not brilliant. It made sense in terms of saving time to travel by helicopter. I hate the things and apart from one trip to the Galway Races, I hardly ever remember using it for pleasure”
Need we say more?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7W4proCQck