Untitled - Cork City Council

egion's gateway and hub populations in 2006. It is therefore unlikely that the share of
Regional population enjoyed by Kerry will increase, and may well in fact decrease.
However, for the purposes of planning, it is prudent to adopt a figure which covers the upside
investment risk. Since in the absolute numbers involved in doing so are quite small,
the impact in planning terms for Cork City and County is likely to be modest.
For this reason, the above figure of 176,000 is adopted. It suggests an annual population
growth rate for the County of 1.66 per cent per annum – against the 1.35 per cent
experienced in the period 2002 to 2006.
City of Cork
The population of Cork City fell from 123 thousand in 2002 to 119,000 in 2006. This does
not, however, reflect the longer term potential of the City to absorb a considerable
increase in the present level of population. In particular, the redevelopment of the
dockland area of the City will offer the opportunity for high density development over an
extensive brownfield site. When taken together with the exploitation of lands elsewhere at
higher densities, City planners estimate that there is the potential to accommodate up to
50,000 persons in these new developments.
Against this must be set the forecast reduction in average household size of households
in existing dwellings. This may reduce the population by some 20,000 over the period.
Overall, therefore, the City is judged to have the capacity to increase its population to
150,000 by 2020. Maximal population growth is assumed as the most sustainable
development path in terms of the Cork Gateway development.
County Cork
The remaining share of the target regional population is allocated to County Cork. In 2006
the population of the County was 362,000. This will rise to 458 thousand by 2020.
Summary of projections at County Level
Table 1 below sets out the projections at County level. Previous projections contained
within the Regional Planning Guidelines, are shown in the last column.
Table 1: Proposed 2020 population shares – Local Authority areas
County 2002 2006 2020 RPG 2020
County Kerry 132,527 139,835 176,000 149,000-160,000
Cork City 123,062 119,418 150,000 136,000-142,000
County Cork 324,767 361,877 458,000 385,000-398,000
Region 580,356 621,130 784,000 670,000-700,000
3. Allocate Cork County population to the CASP area, Mallow Hub and
the remainder of the County
This allocation is achieved by extracting the target for Mallow hub, assigning a growth
rate for population outside of the CASP area which is broadly in line with existing trends,
and then allocating the balance to the CASP area.
Mallow
The hub of Mallow has a population target for 2020 which remains at 20,000. The
strategy in the draft plan for the town aims to ensure that a shortage of available lands
does not restrict the town's potential to grow to 20,000 or beyond and potentially up to
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