Untitled - Cork City Council

Cork Strategic Retail Study
sites – within an easy and convenient walking distance from the primary shopping core
(300-400m).
2.19 Finally, they state that for all applications for large scale retail development, retail
impact should be assessed.
2.20 There are also policy guidelines for particular types of retail development:
• Outside Greater Dublin, there is no justification for new large scale regional
shopping centres;
• Development plans will identify any need for new District centres, comprising up to
10,000m 2 in the main towns and 20,000m 2 in Dublin;
• Large foodstores will be subject to a 3,500m 2 net retail floorspace cap in Greater
Dublin, and 3,000m 2 net retail floorspace elsewhere;
• Discount foodstores of up to 1,500m 2 gross floorspace have a potential role in
extending the choice and range of retailing;
• Retail parks in the range of 8,000 to 15,000m 2 (gross) of development will generally
be acceptable provided the range of goods is conditioned to the sale of bulky
household goods only, i.e. carpets, furniture, white electrical goods and DIY items;
• Retail warehousing units will be subject to a 6,000m 2 gross floorspace cap
(including ancillary garden centre) 1 . Councils may wish to impose a minimum size
condition (700m 2 ) on units in out-of-centre locations to prevent sub-division or
smaller stores; and
• In petrol filling stations, up to 100m 2 net retail sales area will be allowed.
2.21 The aim of floorspace caps is to reduce the likelihood of local monopolies.
Regional Planning Guidelines for the South West Region
2.22 The Regional Planning Guidelines (RPGs) for the South West (adopted in May 2004)
set a target population of 700,000 for the region by 2020 (the population at the 2002
census was 580,000).
2.23 In line with NSS policy, the majority of population growth is set to take place in Cork
City and the Metropolitan Towns, a single housing and employment market. Additional
growth is envisaged at the Mallow hub, with smaller scale growth in the towns, villages
and rural areas. Metropolitan Cork (Cork City Council area together with the satellite
towns of Ballincollig, Blarney, Carrigaline, Carrigtwohill, Cobh, Glanmire/Riverstown,
Midleton, Passage West and Tower and the strategic industrial areas and villages) is
set to grow by a minimum of 65,000.
Cork Area Strategic Plan (CASP) 2001-2020
2.24 CASP provides a vision and strategy for the development of the Cork City sub-region
up to 2020. It sets out a broad-brush rail and public transport based strategy to guide
the general direction and scale of growth. The CASP strategy is currently being
updated.
2.25 The strategy is summarised by Figure 2.2, below. The circles identify the major growth
areas, with the dark shaded sections representing existing population and the light
shaded areas representing additional population.
1 The threshold was amended to accommodate larger stores in IAP areas in NSS gateways in 2005
Roger Tym & Partners with Simon Clear & Associates
March 2008 5