Limerick improvement projects

dave 27

Totally agree with the stupid wording of the headline, most developments in Irish city centres get objections and appeals which means people just have to assess the situation and tweak this or that, it's basically part and parcel of the Irish planning system at this stage!

pigtown

There's a planning application to build a two storey retail building on the former Finucane's Electrical site on Thomas St.
I was hoping that this site could become a pocket park but I suppose the council have bigger projects on their minds.
I think two stories is too low though, it should be at least four or five.

mart 23

Maybe they have to keep to the same height level as the shops alongside the site. I agree it would be better if it is the height of the uber building.

zulutango

It's a very small site to build something tall on. Ideally, the other properties adjoining it would be bought out and a more significant development put there. It's a waste of good city centre space otherwise. It would be of far more value to the city as a little park than a two storey building.

Vanquished

Two floors would have to be considered a major underdevelopment of that site. Especially when you consider that a four storey building was granted planning permission for that exact location back in 2008. (See attached).

That project never materialised given what occurred just a few months later. Although it was surprising that they never applied for an extension of duration when the existing permission expired back in 2013. Apparently there is provision to add another 2 floors to the stone fronted building beside the Uber office also.

Bored_lad

There's nothing inherently wrong with a two story building in that sight if for example it was luxury retail or similar. However, really it should probably be around four stories similar to the one approved in 08 posted above.

Brennans Row

Limerick City Ireland’s new hotspot for Investment :cool: (European Business Magazine)

https://twitter.com/LimkMarketing/status/793860256220807168

Jose Maria

zulutango wrote: »

It's a very small site to build something tall on. Ideally, the other properties adjoining it would be bought out and a more significant development put there. It's a waste of good city centre space otherwise. It would be of far more value to the city as a little park than a two storey building.

A park?? The size of it, you'd bareley get 6 people in there for a few cans

Vanquished

Further information has been submitted to the council in relation to the office and apartment development at Bishop's Quay. New decision date is December 22nd.

tommy249

I see 6 options for redevelopment of O'Connell street have been unveiled and the council are looking for feedback .... Scroll down on the page below for options

https://smartertravel.limerick.ie/oconnell-street-lucroc

johnnyryan89

tommy249 wrote: »

I see 6 options for redevelopment of O'Connell street have been unveiled and the council are looking for feedback .... Scroll down on the page below for options

https://smartertravel.limerick.ie/oconnell-street-lucroc

I'd go with option E, seems to be the only option that allows you to drive down sarsfield st from O'Connell st I think.

Vanquished

Option E all the way. It gives us a much needed pedestrian space in the heart of the city. It also redistributes through traffic that has absolutely no business on O'Connell Street to a newly reconfigured southbound lane on Henry Street. A route that has capacity to handle the redirected traffic.

zulutango

Vanquished wrote:

Option E all the way. It gives us a much needed pedestrian space in the heart of the city. It also redistributes through traffic that has absolutely no business on O'Connell Street to a newly reconfigured southbound lane on Henry Street. A route that has capacity to handle the redirected traffic.

It maintains two lanes in one direction on O'Connell Street though. That has to change.

Vanquished

zulutango wrote: »

Vanquished wrote:

Option E all the way. It gives us a much needed pedestrian space in the heart of the city. It also redistributes through traffic that has absolutely no business on O'Connell Street to a newly reconfigured southbound lane on Henry Street. A route that has capacity to handle the redirected traffic.

It maintains two lanes in one direction on O'Connell Street though. That has to change.

To what? Two way traffic or full pedestrianisation?

zulutango

Vanquished wrote:

To what? Two way traffic or full pedestrianisation?

Either one lane in one direction, or two ways in two directions. In the long run we'll be looking at near-full pedestrianisation of the city centre but that's a few decades off yet!

johnnyryan89

http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/home/227666/new-limerick-institute-of-technology-campus-given-the-green-light.html#.WFEnelF3ptI.facebook

LIT get the green light to expand into Coonagh Cross subject to 21 conditions with two of them that it can only be used by the mechanical and automobile faculty and that LIT must put in place a private shuttle bus to and from the campus until public transport can be put in place.

Also in the leader is a article with the heading "Green Party want linear park in the city". Basically the green party put in a submission to have a linear park running alongside O'Connell Street between the junctions of Mallow St and William St. To make up for the parking spaces that would be lost they suggest that Roches St, Cecil St and Glentworth St could be reduced to one way systems to allow diagonal parking.

wigsa100

How does that work exactly? So where would it go? At the top of William St?

zulutango

Think they are talking about turning O'Connell Street into a linear park?

dashoonage

will the green party ever **** off.

black & white

I saw a Derelict Sites notice on the old Desmond Arms pub up at the top of Catherine Street and also on a vacant building on Lower Hartstonge Street. Can't imagine that will be anything other than a slow process but nice to see the Council doing something about eyesores around the city.

johnnyryan89

zulutango wrote: »

Think they are talking about turning O'Connell Street into a linear park?

Yeah that's what they were talking about, going from the William St junction up towards the chicken hut would be easy cause they plan on making that stretch more pedestrian friendly but be interesting to know how they planned on having it continue on towards the Mallow St junction.

zulutango

johnnyryan89 wrote: »

Yeah that's what they were talking about, going from the William St junction up towards the chicken hut would be easy cause they plan on making that stretch more pedestrian friendly but be interesting to know how they planned on having it continue on towards the Mallow St junction.

In a situation where the cars and especially the through-traffic are removed from the city, then this could be feasible. It'll happen eventually but we're far too car-dependent at the moment for it to happen now.

Poxyshamrock

O'Connell Street is a) too wide for complete pedestrianisation and b) lacking in decent businesses/units to make pedestrianisation worthwhile. I think it'd make the street eerily quiet

zulutango

I'd have to disagree with you there. There's plenty of wider streets all over Europe that have been fully pedestrianised. Indeed, Patrick Street in Cork is to be fully pedestrianised in the coming years, as is College Green / Dame Street in Dublin. Your second point is moot because pedestrianisation would change the whole context of the street, and therefore it would be attractive for certain businesses and not others. In any case, the proposal is to turn it into a linear park. It's a radical idea so you have to cast away your current impressions of the street and try and see it in this utterly transformed context.

wigsa100

Turning it into a linear park would see the place full of degenerates loitering and causing trouble, much like Bishop Lucey Park on the Grand Parade in Cork is now. Only that this would be worse, and in a more central part of town.

zulutango

Possibly. I wouldn't say that's a definite though. It would depend on a few factors. The proximity of various social services doesn't help of course, but these are solvable issues.

phog

dashoonage wrote: »

will the green party ever **** off.

They're dead in the water, what % of votes did they pick up in the last election?

panda100

phog wrote: »

They're dead in the water, what % of votes did they pick up in the last election?

In all fairness, the Green Party had an excellent candidate in the last General Election, certainly miles better than most of the idiot gombeens elected. He did very well for his first election.

Can someone please explain to me what a linear park is?

MarkR

I'd imagine it's just squeezing a bit of greenery into a pedestrianized street. I've seen some cool ones done in the US with defunct raised rail lines.

Here's one in NY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Line_(New_York_City)

johnnyryan89

panda100 wrote: »

Can someone please explain to me what a linear park is?

It's an urban park which is longer than it is wide.