The Jamestown masterplan, ratified by Dublin city councillors on Monday night, offers a blueprint for the transformation of former or under-utilised industrial lands into new residential communities, while still retaining employment capacity.
The plan relates to 43 hectares north of Finglas village, centred on the Jamestown Business Park, which still has several thriving businesses but also has vacant plots.
With a projected 3,500-3,800 apartments, the land could provide homes for 8,000 people, similar to the populations of substantial rural towns such Monaghan, Bandon or Thurles. It would also swell the population of the already large north Dublin suburb of Finglas to almost 40,000. Like many parts of the city Finglas is an area of acute housing need, but despite its large population of more than 30,000, the village has suffered from business closures and vacancy.
These factors underline the need for a strategic plan to ensure the land is redeveloped in a coherent, phased manner which caters for future housing needs, while also taking into account the needs of the existing community.
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The plan envisages 65 per cent residential and 25 per cent employment or commercial development, with 10 per cent community, education and ancillary facilities. While development will be high density, it will not be high rise. Most new apartments will be in blocks of four to six storeys, with housing of up to three storeys . Provision has been made for a small number of seven- and eight-storey blocks and a restricted number of higher units. Retail will be limited to encourage the new population to use the existing village.
There are lessons to be learned. Councillors zoned the land for housing two years ago. In the intervening period a build-to-rent scheme, which conflicts with the Jamestown plan, was granted permission by An Bord Pleanála and has resulted in the council initiating legal action against the board. Aligning rezoning more tightly with plan-making could avoid similar pitfalls in the future.