1. City Centre
Introduction
The City Centre in Context
10.3 The City Centre is the historical, cultural and commercial heart of Cork. Its success is vital to the wellbeing of the entire City and wider region. It projects a vibrant image for Cork internationally, attracting investment and is an important location for urban living, employment, education, tourism, culture, public services and the principal location for retail and hospitality in the region. The shift in focus towards urban living and compact development presents an opportunity to build on these assets and, through good management, will play a key role in delivering on the future, sustainable growth of Cork City. This section focuses primarily on the City Centre Island, from MacCurtain Street and Shandon north of the River Lee to the South Parish area and Barrack Street to the south. At the heart of this is St. Patrick’s Street, serving as the main shopping street for the south of Ireland. With fluctuating trends in retail and the challenges faced by the COVID-19 pandemic, it will be important to ensure it retains its draw and relevance into the future. Issues affecting the City Centre are pervasive, therefore other Chapters in this Plan are of relevance and provide relevant development guidance. 10.4 The vision for the City Centre is to fulfil its potential as a vibrant, diverse place to live, work and visit, recognising its key importance to the success of the City and wider region. It will be developed in a sustainable manner while maintaining its historic, cultural, economic and social character.
10.5 Cork City Centre will play a key role in delivering on the National Planning Framework’s (NPF) ambitious targets of achieving compact growth and preventing the continued expansion and sprawl of cities and towns out into the countryside. The way of achiev- ing this is by making better use of under-utilised land and buildings. The Core Strategy of this Plan aims to accommodate an additional c.3,500 people in the City Centre by 2028, a growth of 15% from the Census 2016 baseline figure of 22,732. This is to be achieved by a combination of regeneration (new build) and consolidation (reuse of the existing built fabric). 10.6 The Cork Metropolitan Area Strategic Plan (MASP) aims to promote the City Centre as the primary location at the heart of the metropolitan area and region. It notes how globally, city centres are increasingly sought-after as the locations of choice for investors for a combination of living, working and high quality of life opportunities. Some of the ways to capitalise on this include: • Upgrading and developing the public realm, inner-city parks (including Bishop Lucey Park), urban amenity areas, linear amenity areas (that optimise waterfront settings), and further embracing the river as a key asset, home for biodiversity, and amenity within the City Centre, • Acquisition of and planned development of strategic inner-city sites to facilitate regeneration of vacant and underutilised areas, • Mechanisms to promote redevelopment of strategic city blocks and the upgrading and reuse of existing buildings, • Investment in retrofitting infrastructure and services (physical, social and recreational) to improve quality of life for communities, • Support continued investment in the cultural assets of the city, including the Crawford Art Gallery, theatres, museums and other cultural attractions / activities, • Celebrate the rich built heritage of the City Centre.
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Cork City Draft Development Plan 2022-2028
Volume 1 I Chapter 10
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