Dedicated regeneration unit to tackle dereliction being considered by Dublin City Council
A specialised unit of Dublin City Council (DCC) that focuses on tackling vacancy and dereliction is being considered by a council working group.
Councillor Cian Farrell, a member of the DCC Urban Development Working Group, said its members were increasingly settling around the idea of a dedicated unit within the council that would specifically target vacant and derelict sites to turn them into homes.
In 2016, Limerick City and County Council set up a similar special purpose vehicle to regenerate the city, called Limerick 2030.
The working group travelled to the city recently to speak to members of Limerick council about the project.
"It was a really great day,” Mr Farrell told councillors.
“I think the two takeaways for me were first of all, the culture and attitude that Limerick has created around being entrepreneurial, being a risk taker and being bold and ambitious.
"And second of all, the creation of a special purpose vehicle or designated activity company within DCC to focus on the regeneration of the city across redeveloping vacant and derelict buildings, placemaking, ultimately city making.”
The Social Democrats member said a key pain point he’s heard from developers, financiers and builders was the “siloed” nature of the council.
"The feedback from [developers’] experience was … fire would say one thing, conservation would say another, they wouldn’t necessarily be talking to each other internally within DCC.”
A key role of the new unit would be to liaise effectively with developers, financiers and council staff in order to expedite and simplify the regeneration process.
Mr Farrell said a builder with a small amount of capital would much prefer to invest that in a brownfield or greenfield site, compared to a much riskier existing building which could have hidden dry rot or structural issues.
Fellow Social Democrats member Catherine Stocker said another key role of the new regeneration unit could be to “de-risk” these projects.
“The reality is that many of them are not typically commercially viable in terms of the cost to reward ratio, and we need to find a way around that to revitalise the city,” she said.
The working group’s final report will be issued to the council in September, which is expected to identify the structure and makeup of any regeneration unit.
Separately, DCC recently gutted the team behind the Adaptive Reuse programme, which was set up to turn vacant office and commercial units into social housing.