TALKS are still ongoing — behind closed doors — between Limerick City and County Council and the Land Development Agency (LDA) regarding plans for a housing development on Upper Carey’s Road, writes Alan Jacques.
In recent years, the site has become part of the Colbert Quarter Vision project, a collaboration between the LDA, the Council, CIE, and the HSE.
The project initially aimed to redevelop the area around Colbert Station, including the former Guinness site, into a mixed-use development with up to 250 new homes, incorporating social, affordable, and cost-rental housing. However, plans have since changed, and some councillors, as well as members of the local community, have reservations about what is being mooted for the former Guinness site.
As of this week, talks are still ongoing with detailed proposals being developed and suggestions of the goalposts constantly moving.
There are currently three options for the site on the table, with hopes to submit a planning application later this year. The proposals, the LDA has stated, require a direction to progress design team investigations and financial modelling.
Option one for the site is for 287 high density units — 160 units per hectare — all apartments, both cost-rental and social housing with no affordable sale.
Option two proposes 255 mixed tenure units — 143 units per hectare — including 32 affordable sale.
Option three recommends 178 units — 100 units per hectare – with the loss of the Colbert Park and 19 affordable sale units.
In recent months, councillors have had numerous private briefings regarding the proposed development, but not all of them are happy.
Fine Gael councillor Sarah Kiely took particular umbrage with recent proposals for the high-density ‘option one’ development.
“No one would ever own these cost-rental apartments. They would be high rise and they would be high density,” Cllr Kiely explained, speaking with this reporter at the former Guinness site.
The City East representative, a resident of neighbouring Janesboro, wants the proposed development to include affordable purchase and social housing as well as universal design catering for disabled people.
She also believes the development needs to be inclusive, with one, two, and three-bedroom homes for people who want to put down roots.
“This is one of the oldest parts of the city. There’s a lot of houses in this area where people would have traditionally worked in the railway, the ESB, and, in the factories,” Cllr Kiely stated.
“There was a Guinness depot here to bring barrels in and out. They would come off the trains and be loaded and unloaded onto trucks from this site.”
‘We don’t feel safe anymore’
Kiely maintains that the LDA’s plans for Upper Carey’s Road are not in keeping with the surroundings or sympathetic to one of the oldest housing areas
The long derelict Carey’s Road site, the Fine Gael woman claimed, is also a haven for people in drug addiction, as well as anti-social behaviour.
The Limerick Post saw evidence of drug paraphernalia, beer cans, ripped tents, and litter on the site during an interview with Cllr Kiely. This reporter also witnessed a young man climb over the site’s wall.
“This site has been breached a number of times by people using and selling drugs and that’s an issue for residents. The fact that it’s been left vacant so long has seen it become a hub for rough sleepers,” Cllr Kiely said.
“We were hoping as councillors that Limerick City and County Council would develop the site. Then we signed a Memorandum of Understanding six years ago with the LDA. They assured us that they would be developing the site and there would be keys in doors by 2023. We’re now in 2025 and don’t have the planning application.”
Speaking at the site, one resident called for the inclusion of “a little community centre, a place for residents to go and have a cup of tea, and somewhere safe for children to play”.
Another resident raised concerns about the additional traffic the housing development might bring.
“We love our bingo and when we come up home after it, they’re up here doing drugs and we don’t feel safe anymore. It wasn’t always like this,” another local woman insisted.
Council members have had two further private briefings with the LDA in recent weeks. After the last meeting, Cllr Kiely cautiously welcomed new plans which she suggested included social, affordable sale, and cost-rental for key workers who do not qualify for social housing.
“The LDA are proposing to put in a crèche facility. I’m not entirely sure this is appropriate. We have so many developments with crèche facilities and they aren’t occupied. It is widely reported that crèches cannot make money and cannot find qualified staff. With this in mind, it is more appropriate that a community centre is built in this development,” she said.
According to Cllr Kiely, she has called on the LDA for additional affordable sale homes on the Guinness site, urging them to approaching housing on a “broader community spectrum”.
“What they were initially proposing did not tick the box for building a community, because it is a real community here. I grew up on the south of the city and it is a real mature community. But what the LDA were proposing doesn’t really tick that box and that is the key in all this.”
‘National policy from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil’
At a recent Council meeting, Cllr Kiely hit out at Mayor John Moran for “reneging” on plans for houses and a community space in favour of 250 apartments.
The Mayor hit back that “national policy, which I can’t change, is requiring us to build apartments of density in key city centre locations”.
“I know you and I have different views,” he told Cllr Kiely. “I can say we’re following national policy. I would have thought that councillors would reflect on their comments that we cannot take a position in Limerick that we cannot have apartments. If we do that we will have no national funding for any of the housing that we so badly need.”
Mayor Moran told the Council meeting that “we need 50,000 homes. If we’re serious about solving a housing crisis then I think we need to acknowledge that we can either accept that national policy from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil is to build high density apartments in transport-oriented development sites and we’ll leave the discussion there”.
The LDA are continuing to advance plans to transform the Colbert Quarter area and met with Limerick councillors again this past week for further talks.
“Engagement between the Land Development Agency and Limerick City and County Council councillors and the executive is continuing as we work to progress the Carey’s Road site and best address Limerick’s housing need. The LDA hopes to advance a planning application once the development brief has been agreed,” an LDA spokesperson told this newspaper.
