Dublin Corporation yesterday unveiled a £60 million redevelopment plan for St Michael's Estate in Inchicore, Dublin, pledging that it would transform the area into "a very nice place to live".
The plan involves a phased demolition of the entire estate, a mini-Ballymun built in the late 1960s using the same Balency prefabrication system, and its replacement by new housing and a wide range of community facilities. Mr John Fitzgerald, the city manager, said local people had been "very patient" while the plan was being prepared over the past 12 months. "The last thing we want to do is to get it wrong and have to re-do it all in 10 years' time."
He explained that the plan, which bears the imprint of detailed consultation with the residents, was the latest in a £1.5 billion programme of upgrading or renewing the corporation's housing complexes in and around the inner city.
There was no viable alternative to demolishing St Michael's Estate, he said. The four existing eight-storey blocks and six four-storey blocks, bleakly set in "quite useless" open space, could not be restructured to meet the needs of the community.
Only 220 of the 350 flats are currently occupied. Though the estate had started out well, it went through a classic spiral of decline, triggered by increasing levels of social deprivation and, more recently, a major problem with drugs and petty crime.
But Ms Mary Taylor, project manager for the wider Inchicore-Kilmainham integrated area plan, stressed that the remaining residents would be re-housed in new homes on the site.
These homes will largely consist of duplex units over ground-floor apartments and two-storey houses, to fulfil the aspirations of most residents for "own-door" access, as well as five-storey blocks of voluntary-sector, affordable housing.
All of the housing is to be laid out on streets or squares to facilitate passive supervision of open spaces. And to create a better social mix, the plan includes a substantial element of private housing - 90 apartments at the southern end of the site.
In line with the corporation's current policy, the redeveloped estate will have a wide range of community facilities, including an integrated services complex and a multi-purpose theatre.
To overcome a high level of unemployment among women residents, Ms Paula Murphy, architecture officer for the plan, said there would be at least three creches on the estate, integrated with the new housing.
