PLANS for over 500 social and affordable homes on a prominent city centre site are a “missed opportunity” for Limerick, according to the former head of the Land Development Agency (LDA).
Speaking to the Limerick Post, former chair of the LDA, John Moran, said that plans for the St Joseph’s Hospital site, as part of the Colbert Quarter masterplan, are not ambitious enough. He also believes the plans in their current form will lead to a repeat of mistakes of the past in terms of ghettoisation.
Current plans for the 6.4 hectare site adjacent to St Joseph’s Hospital on Mulgrave Street propose between 500 and 600 new social and affordable homes, with a dividing wall between the new development and the buildings owned and run by the HSE.
According to Mr Moran, this layout will lead to a “Berlin Wall” type of situation, further adding that building a wall between the site and the HSE properties doesn’t make sense when officials are actively trying to get rid of walls in other areas.
The former LDA chair called for a more mixed-tenure development on the site to make use of its full potential.
“What’s upset me about the design of this is that there’s a large plot, maybe 12 or 15 hectares, and, instead of keeping it as a mixed-use, it seems like we have created a Berlin Wall in the middle between east and west,” Mr Moran told the Limerick Post.
“The HSE look like they’re building offices and medical centres on one half and we’re putting the social and affordable housing on the other side. I really would make a plea with the LDA and the HSE to find a different way to do that and to mix things up a lot more – and certainly not put up a two-metre-high fence when we’re trying to get rid of walls in other areas,” he said.
“We can’t go back there again in Limerick where we’re walling in communities away from the very facilities that they should be using.”
Plans lack ambition
The Land Development Agency is a semi-state body set up to deliver more social and affordable homes on land owned by the government.
The current plans for the St Joseph’s Hospital site would see a mix of apartments and two-story terraces homes, which Mr Moran says he isn’t in favour of.
He says that the two previously published iterations of the plans were far more ambitious and sought to create a vibrant city centre neighbourhood that features social and affordable apartments, as well as privately owned or rented apartments, along with a public plaza, community and cultural spaces, and shops and working spaces.
Mr Moran claimed that during his time as chair of the LDA, the public were supportive of the plans to create more apartment blocks on the site, with the level of ambition for the site being welcomed.
“I think that the public reaction in Limerick was really warmly receiving of the level of ambition that they had, because they haven’t seen something like that before in Limerick, so here we were finally producing ideas that were as ambitious as anything you’d see in Dublin or other cities,” he said.
“My sense, especially with the first set of drawings – which were produced using architects who are both world class architects and architects based in Limerick – was that people said ‘yeah, we want more of this’, and they were very supportive of it as it went through.”
Mr Moran said he believes a return to the more ambitious plans for the site would set the tone for the overall Colbert Quarter Masterplan, and that “our problem at the moment is that people are saying ‘we don’t have a choice to live in a fun city-type urban fabric, so yes, give us more of that'”.
‘Who wouldn’t want to be mayor’
Speaking on rumours of a potential mayoral run later this year, the Limerick man – who was a very vocal figure in the campaign for a Directly Elected Mayor for Limerick – said he hasn’t ruled out the prospect.
“I’m watching very carefully. If we get great candidates, that’s one thing. If we don’t … one way or another, I’m not giving up on this reform,” he said.
“It has to work for Limerick because it has to work for the rest of the country. If that means that I have to try and round up lots of supporters, so be it. Who wouldn’t want to be mayor of the place that they love?”
