Case Studies   Urban Regeneration in the City of Dublin: Partnership structures and integrated area planning

Urban renewal

Like many British and North America cities, Dublin suffered from poor planning in the 1960s and the 1970s. Much of the fabric of the city centre was bulldozed out of existence, to create the semblance at least of a ‘corporate city in-the-making’. Considerably profits were derived by key individuals from property development in the city centre, and land speculation in the city’s sprawling suburbs. At the same time, the City Council vigorously pursued a policy of relocating inner city residents to new social housing schemes on the city’s perimeter. The social fabric of the city and its capacity to form sustainable communities was systematically undermined. The erosion of inner-city communities through job loss and the disappearance of their homes was paralleled by the growth of new ex-urbanised communities on the fringe of Dublin City, where population growth continues to increase at a dramatic rate, (Census 2002).

By the early 1980s, it was widely recognised that the city centre areas of Dublin were in need of regeneration and that such regeneration would not occur if left to market forces alone. The impetus for regeneration was provided by the Urban Renewal Act (1986) which made available a generous package of tax-based incentives to developers, investors and homeowners. The urban renewal scheme was designed to promote private investment in the built environment of designated inner-city areas either through refurbishment of existing buildings or through new developments, (KPMG Report, 1996: i).

In response to these conditions, and given the generally more favourable prevailing economic conditions, Dublin in the 1990s experienced a building boom in the office and commercial sectors. Ten thousand new private apartments were built in the inner city in this period and have been occupied almost entirely by young, childless, professional people, (Breathnach, 1999: 3). The central State effectively acted as a catalyst for commercial development, and at the same time, ensured a market for what was actually built through the additional tax incentives for occupancy of commercial buildings and private homes.

Urban Decline    Integrated Area Planning