Development plan · Dublin City Council
Dublin City Development Plan 2022–2028 – Volume 1: Written Statement (as varied by Variations Nos. 1–11)
The council's development plan written statement: its strategy, policies, objectives and development standards.
Dublin City Council · 2022–2028 · 696 pages
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- The City Centre, Urban Villages and Retail | Chapter 7 201 7.1 Introduction Dublin city’s urban centres comprise the city centre, which is the prime retail destination for the country, surrounded by a network of inner and outer suburban centres of different scales. These centres offer a range of opportunities for retail, community and social interaction, services, jobs / business development, amenities and cultural and artistic engagement. Dublin City Centre is where people come to experience the city’s vibrant street scenes, public spaces and a varied cultural and leisure offer and where they come to shop, work, study, live, socialise and spend time. These activities are facilitated by an increasingly integrated public transport system serving the city centre and progressively improving active travel options. The city’s Key Urban Villages, urban villages and neighbourhood centres are the heart of their local communities; they provide a focus for local activities, allow sustainable urban living and allow people access to local shops, services, community services, information, healthcare, amenities and to work locally. These centres have high levels of access to quality public transport and bus services. Changes in economic conditions, technological advances, retail trends, changing consumer behaviours and the impacts and changes brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic have and continue to result in new patterns of work and lifestyles. As people can now shop and work and be entertained from home they are using the urban centres differently. In the city centre, for example, a broader leisure experience of shopping, eating, relaxing, working, browsing and culture draws visitors into the city centre; they come for a day or evening out, looking to eat, drink and visit the cinema etc., as well as shop. In order to evolve and adapt to these trends, the city centre and the city’s other urban centres will need to offer wide ranging appeal to draw and attract visitors. This includes leisure uses, residential uses, office and community uses as well as retail uses. To sustain and grow urban centres in the longer term, there will also need to be greater opportunities for people to live and spend time in these centres. In order to achieve thriving, inclusive and healthy sustainable urban centres, these centres need to be transformed into attractive and vibrant urban areas offering more space and comfort for pedestrians, a high quality public realm, amenities, active travel opportunities and opportunities for social / community interaction, cultural events and urban greening. 7.2 Achievements At a strategic level, the Luas Cross City link, constructed in 2017, now connects the Grafton Street shopping area on the southern side of the River Liffey to the O’Connell Street / Henry Street shopping area to the north of the river. This public transport infrastructure supports and improves access to the city’s main shopping streets by providing the city’s residents as
- The City Centre, Urban Villages and Retail | Chapter 7 202 well as visitors with new options for travelling to the city centre, by allowing people far greater ease of movement around the city and by providing new access routes to the main shopping streets. The arrival of Luas Cross City has and will continue to stimulate private sector investment in the city centre. Over the last development plan period, a number of large scale mixed use and retail developments have been developed or are currently being progressed in the city centre. These include the flagship refurbishment and extension of the former Clery’s Department Store on O’Connell Street to provide a new retail, office, hotel and food quarter destination. Other large scale developments include: the redevelopment of Hibernian House / Hibernian Corner / Nassau House on the corner of Nassau Street and Dawson Street to provide large scale retail and office space; the repurposing of the former Central Bank site on Dame Street to provide a mix of offices, retail, cafés and restaurants; and, the completed Chatham & King retail development off Grafton Street. The introduction of a mix of retail, office, hotel and cafes and restaurants will have a significant impact on the visual and commercial heart of the city centre contributing to the daytime, evening and night time economy. The leisure sector and personal care services have seen substantial growth in the city in the last 10 years. Cafés, restaurants, cinemas, gyms and personal grooming establishments etc. are making a significant contribution to the overall commercial functioning of the city during day, evening and night time. Convenience retailing (supermarkets) has expanded significantly in all parts of Dublin City over the previous decade, helped by population growth and policy support in the two last development plans. In recent years, the inner city has seen the development of a significant number of new convenience stores particularly in the discount food store sector including at Brunswick Street, Cork Street and East Wall. This new convenience retail provision has provided greater consumer choice and competition and in many areas, has had regeneration benefits and provided much needed neighbourhood scale retail provision. The improvement of the public realm in the city centre is being addressed through the implementation of the City Council’s Public Realm Strategy (‘Your City - Your Space’, 2012), and area based public realm plans including: ▪ the Grafton Street Quarter Public Realm Improvement Plan, 2013; ▪ the ‘Heart of the City’ Public Realm Masterplan for the City Core 2016; and ▪ the Temple Bar Public Realm Plan, 2016. Focusing on densely used public spaces and the needs of pedestrians and cyclists, these plans set out guidance and priorities for the city centre for the next 10/15 years. Public realm improvements completed under the ‘Grafton Street Quarter Public Realm Improvement Plan’ include works to Grafton Street, Harry Street, Balfe Street, Chatham Street and Clarendon Street.
- The City Centre, Urban Villages and Retail | Chapter 7 203 The City Centre Pedestrian Wayfinding Scheme provides essential local information (map panels and fingerposts) to help and encourage people to walk around and explore the city. This scheme continues to be expanded around the inner city and it extends to the Docklands, Phibsborough and Raheny. Infrastructure consists of map panel units and fingerposts, carrying c. 1,730 finger panel signs. Since 2016, as new destinations emerged in the city, additional finger panel signs and combined map panel units have been added to the wayfinding system. The O’Connell Street and Grafton Street Areas of Special Planning Control (ASPCs) remain pivotal in ensuring that only suitable uses are permitted in the heart of the city. Updated Schemes of Special Planning Control were made for O’Connell Street in 2022 and for Grafton Street in 2019. These schemes allow Dublin City Council to specify development objectives for the preservation or enhancement of these areas. This will ensure the protection of the special and unique character of O’Connell Street and Grafton Street, which is intrinsically linked to specific retailers and uses. A Shopfront Improvement Scheme was launched in 2015 for retail premises in the south western area of the city. Through financial assistance it has assisted a wide range of retailers, small business owners and community organisations to enhance their premises and improve the quality of some of the capital’s most historic streets and urban villages. This scheme has been rolled out to the Finglas / Ballymun area. 7.3 Challenges The main challenges in protecting, developing and enhancing the city centre and the city’s urban villages are outlined below: Revitalising and Developing the Resilience of the City Centre and the City’s Urban Centres Post-Covid-19 The Covid-19 Pandemic had an unprecedented and seismic impact on Dublin’s economy with activity in retail, retail services, food and beverage, leisure, tourism and cultural sectors plummeting and businesses closing. A report by the three Regional Assemblies of Ireland – ‘Covid-19 Regional Economic analysis’, 2020, anticipated that Dublin City and suburbs exposure to the pandemic would be the lowest of all urban centres as its economic activities such as finance and ICT are capable of operating remotely. The city and suburbs, however, have the highest number (nationally) of commercial units operating in the sectors worst affected. Revitalising and developing the resilience of the city centre and the city’s urban centres post-Covid-19 is a huge challenge for the city. The Changing Nature of Retail The retail sector is undergoing change due to online retailing, technological change and changing consumer behaviour. There are now many more ways to shop (multi-channel) that do not require the shopper to visit an urban centre as shopping can be delivered to the
- The City Centre, Urban Villages and Retail | Chapter 7 204 home or work etc. Year-on-year growth in online retailing in Ireland has increased and this trend has accelerated during the pandemic. While large urban centres with attractions complementary to retail are likely to withstand the challenges of online shopping, the city’s smaller suburban centres are more likely to be impacted by these trends. Competition from M50 Shopping Centres The regional M50 shopping centres have solidified their position as regional shopping destinations within Dublin’s suburbs, displacing comparison retail focussed shopping trips that were once the exclusive remit of the city centre. Combined, these centres offer retail space on a par with the city centre and they continue to have active plans to expand. For the city centre to remain resilient and competitive it must attract these shoppers back to the city centre and recognise and respond to the appeal of shopping in a high quality car-free environment with a concentration of a range of appealing retail uses, as evidenced in Henry Street and Grafton Street. Investment in Key Urban Villages In the suburbs, there are challenges relating to the traditional street, the parade of local shops or older shopping centres that are no longer strongly competitive and have now to compete with the growing presence of convenience supermarkets and on-line retailing. Large scale retail led developments in many suburban centres approved pre the 2008 recession were not realised and retail development has contracted in many of the Key Urban Villages resulting in vacancy. Many of these centres remain underdeveloped and have capacity for consolidation and regeneration. Attracting appropriate uses / retail to these centres remains a challenge. An opportunity presents itself to facilitate the incubation of indigenous craft, arts and cultural goods and services, food production, local farmers markets and the sale of local produce and other local services that can contribute to the vibrancy and occupancy of the key urban villages’ retail core. Retrofitting the Public Realm to Realise Opportunities for Healthy Placemaking De-cluttering and repurposing the public realm and rebalancing space in favour of pedestrians and cyclists will be required to ensure the city centre and the city’s urban centres support healthy placemaking. Investment in the public realm makes the city centre and Key Urban Villages more attractive and more accessible to all, with improved and widened paths, seating / rest spaces, tree planting and opportunities to linger. Growing the Night Time Economy There has been growing recognition of the role the night time sector plays / can play in the economy of cities. The development of a 24 hour city in Dublin City has the potential to draw more people into the city, thereby supporting other city centre uses and supporting job growth and the city’s economy. Tackling the perceived image of an unsafe night environment, however, in certain areas of the city, and issues such as the lack of night time
- The City Centre, Urban Villages and Retail | Chapter 7 205 public transport and the potential for conflict with other uses such as residential uses needs to be managed and addressed. 7.4 The Strategic Approach The following strategic approach will be taken to support and promote the city centre and the city’s urban villages and retail: ▪ Align the retail hierarchy for the city to the settlement hierarchy of the core strategy in order to enhance and consolidate the city centre and to create mixed use, lively and vibrant urban villages and neighbourhoods throughout the city. ▪ Place sustainability and climate resilience as the over-arching consideration in the development of the city centre and urban villages with a particular emphasis on healthy streets, active travel and public transport accessibility, building on the 15 minute city concept, the primacy of the city centre and the vitality and viability of existing and emerging centres. ▪ Provide a vibrant mix of shopping, leisure, office and residential uses, third spaces and family friendly attractions in the city centre thereby, offering shoppers an experience and a depth of offer that attracts suburban shoppers / workers / tourist / students / residents to shop, socialise and spend time in the city centre. ▪ Promote and consolidate the role of Key Urban Villages so that they provide for sustainable urban living, they serve the community / social / cultural / civic needs of the local communities in which they exist and a level of retail development commensurate to their catchment. ▪ Promote and consolidate the role of urban villages and neighbourhood centres so that they can provide convenient and attractive access by walking and cycling to local goods and services needed on a day-to-day basis. ▪ Recognise the importance of placemaking and an attractive public realm and its contribution to supporting city centre retail, enhanced pedestrian amenities and developing the city centre and urban villages as key destinations. ▪ Place an emphasis on healthy place making in the city centre and in all urban centres with initiatives tailored towards making these centres better places to live and to visit. 7.5 Policies and Objectives 7.5.1 General Retail Policy The Retail Planning Guidelines, 2012 set out the retail planning framework for retail development. In accordance with these guidelines, retail policy for the city must be informed by a multi-authority retail strategy which would set out the retail hierarchy for the region and which would set out retail floorspace requirements for different settlements
- The City Centre, Urban Villages and Retail | Chapter 7 206 under the hierarchy. The existing 2008 – 2016 Retail Strategy for the Greater Dublin Area is considered out of date and a new multi-authority strategy for the region is required. In the interim, the Regional Spatial Economic Strategy (RSES), for the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly, 2019 sets out a retail hierarchy for the Eastern and Midland Region and it states that it will support and drive the preparation of a new retail strategy for the region. For the purposes of this development plan and pending the preparation of a new retail strategy for the Region, a ‘Retail Strategy’ has been prepared for this development plan and this is set out in Appendix 2 of this Plan. This strategy outlines a retail hierarchy for the city comprising, in descending order, the city centre, Key Urban Villages, urban villages and neighbourhood centres and local shops. See Figure 7-1: Retail Strategy for the indicative locations of the city centre retail core, key urban villages and examples of urban villages.
- The City Centre, Urban Villages and Retail | Chapter 7 207 Figure 7-1: Retail Strategy
- The City Centre, Urban Villages and Retail | Chapter 7 208 In line with the Retail Planning Guidelines, 2012, the DCC Retail Strategy seeks to promote town centre vitality through the sequential approach to development. New retail development should relate to this retail hierarchy and it should located in the designated centre and be of a scale compatible with the function and capacity of the centre (see Section 6.0 of the Retail Strategy). It is the Policy of Dublin City Council: CCUV1 Retail Planning Guidelines That future provision of retail development within the city will have regard to The Retail Planning Guidelines for Planning Authorities DECLG 2012. Dublin City Council will also have regard to these guidelines when preparing plans and in the assessment of retail-related planning applications. CCUV2 Retail Hierarchy To implement the retail hierarchy contained in the ‘Retail Strategy’ of this Development Plan and to support retail development at all settlement levels in the city. Retail development within the hierarchy of centres will be of a scale, type, and nature that reflects and enhances the role and function of the centre within which it is proposed as per the Retail Strategy, Appendix 2. CCUV3 Sequential Approach To promote city centre and urban village vitality through the sequential approach to retail development, enable good quality development in appropriate locations, facilitate modal shift and to deliver quality design outcomes. CCUV4 The Role of Retail To promote and support the major contribution of retail and retail services to the vitality and success of the city, as a significant source of employment, a focus of tourism, as an important recreational activity and as a link with other cultural, recreational and community activities. CCUV5 Retail Design Brief To require that proposed retail developments for large-scale or sensitive sites are accompanied by a retail design brief guided by the key principles contained in the ‘Retail Design Manual – DECLG, 2012’.
- The City Centre, Urban Villages and Retail | Chapter 7 209 It is the Policy of Dublin City Council: CCUV6 Large Scale Retail / Mixed Use Developments To ensure that large scale retail / mixed use development proposals match the capacity of existing and planned public transport; provide good quality street environments to provide safer and more attractive settings for people to shop / do business; and incorporate cycle and pedestrian friendly designs in line with the Retail Design Manual 2012. CCUV7 Variety in Shopping Offer Development proposals for major new retail and complementary developments will be expected to provide a range of unit sizes to encourage variety in the shopping offer and support small business growth. CCUV8 Competition and Innovation To promote and facilitate competition and innovation in the retail sector to the benefit of the consumer, as an integral part of the proper planning and sustainable development of the city. CCUV9 Independent Retailing To support the independent retailing sector by continuing to provide financial support, skills training and education through the Local Enterprise Office and other means. CCUV10 Specialist Shops To acknowledge the unique attraction/distinctiveness of specialist shops / independent / indigenous retail in the city centre and inner city which contribute to the character and attractiveness of the city centre. CCUV11 Omni-Channel Retail To promote and support ‘Click and Collect’ services which can reduce ecommerce deliveries and bring footfall to the city centre. CCUV12 Shopfront Design To require a high quality of design and finish for new and replacement shopfront signage and advertising. Dublin City Council will actively promote the principles of good shopfront design as set out in Dublin City Council’s Shopfront Design Guidelines and Chapter 15.
- The City Centre, Urban Villages and Retail | Chapter 7 210 It is the Policy of Dublin City Council: CCUV13 Vacant Units To promote the temporary use of vacant premises in order to reduce the level of vacancy on streets in the city’s urban centres including Key Urban Villages as this can compromise the vitality of urban centres. Temporary uses which can contribute to the economic, social and cultural vitality of the city centre , Key Urban Villages and other centres and which allow public access will be encouraged (pending permanent occupancy). CCUV14 Adult Shops, Betting Shops and Gaming Arcades That there will be a presumption against adult shops, betting shops and gaming arcades in proximity to residential areas, places of public worship and schools and similarly, there will be a presumption against an excessive concentration of such uses having regard to the existing presence of such retail outlets in an area. It is an Objective of Dublin City Council: CCUVO1 Support Preparation of New Retail Strategy for the Region To support the preparation of a new retail strategy for the region in accordance with the requirements of the Retail Planning Guidelines 2012 and undertake a review of the Dublin City Development Plan Retail Strategy upon its completion. CCUVO2 Consultation with Adjoining Local Authorities To co-operate and consult with adjoining local authorities regarding the impact of retail plans or schemes with particular regard to the potential for significant cross-boundary impacts on urban centres. CCUVO3 Monitoring / Review of Retail Floorspace Provision (i) To monitor large retail permissions / provision and to review changes in population targets that may be carried out during the lifetime of the Plan in order to identify any retail policy adjustments required. (ii) To carry out a comprehensive review of retail floorspace in the city centre and Key Urban Villages. 7.5.2 Primacy of the City Centre and Retail Core Area Dublin City Centre serves as the pre-eminent shopping, business, cultural and leisure destination in the state. To ensure the long-term sustainability, viability and vitality of the
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