New Year normally brings with it a desire to look to the future, get fit, get healthy, etc. After Covid-19 hit 2020 and three lockdowns, we are all keen to look to move forward, but with much more appreciation for where we live, work, and play.
So, it’s very timely that the process to develop a new Galway City Development Plan has just kicked off. When you talk to some people, they bemoan the lack of progress in the city, as they see it, and are full of suggestions about how we can make everything better. This article will look at how we plan our city and how all those people can get involved today in planning the city for the next 10 years.
Over the last few weeks Galway City Council has started the process of looking towards the future and has released an “issues paper” to commence the process of developing a city plan for the period 2023-2029. This plan will guide how the city develops over that period and also lay the groundwork for projects into the 2030s. Right now, Galway City Council is looking for input to help formulate the overall objectives and associated policies that will influence the continued growth of the city. The deadline for submissions is Friday, March 5, 2021. Once this process is completed a draft development plan will be prepared in November and further public consultation is planned for March 2022. You can access this document at https://www.galwaycity.ie/development-plan-2023-2029.
Whether you are interested in contributing or not, this document is essential viewing for anyone with an interest in the city. It provides a snapshot of some of the key challenges facing the city such as transport, housing, sustainability, and more. It also lists some solutions already in process, such as the Cross City Bus Link, as well as asking other questions in an effort to develop solutions to help the city grow sustainably. In effect this document gives some insight into the city council's current thinking about the city and the challenges and possibilities it sees ahead.
Given our experiences over the last 12 months the objectives and priorities emanating from this process are likely to be considerably different from what they may have been 12 months ago. Things like working from home are here to stay, maybe not on a five day a week basis but definitely on a one or two days per week. As a result, how we travel, exercise, and shop is going to change. A number of cities are embracing the concept of a 15-minute city, where people have work, school, retail, and amenities they need on a daily basis within 15 minutes of their homes. Online retailing has grown hugely, Shop Street will always be called Shop Street but how do we want to see it develop and adapt over the next 10 years as people buy less from physical shops? Access to a wide choice of affordable homes to buy or rent is a huge issue. These are some of the questions we need to address if Galway is going to continue to be one of the best cities in Europe to live in.
Bear in mind that the City Development Plan is not prepared in isolation, it is part of a much bigger picture, as is illustrated in the diagram.
In its most basic terms, the starting place is Government policy which sets high level broad objectives such as making our cities more sustainable. The National Development Plan seeks to put Government funding behind each strategic objective, current allocation in the region of €116 billion. The next layer is the regional plans which focus on specific geographic areas; Galway city is part of the North West region which has prepared a regional plan and a Galway City Metropolitan Area Strategic Plan. The regional assembly also has a role in accessing EU funds for some of the projects and often acts as a managing authority for the expenditure of these funds in its area. Looking to the future, getting funding for a project or a concept not referenced in the new City Development Plan is going to be very challenging if not nearly impossible, so this adds an extra importance to the new city plan.
It’s also important to recognise that a lot of things are happening currently, infrastructure planning and implementation is a slow process as the Galway City Ring Road illustrates. The city council has started to progress the first stage of the Cross City Bus Link project which will transform public transport activity across the city. The Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge has also moved forward, as have works on the Kirwan Roundabout. Other bodies such as Galway Chamber have raised public awareness of some of these projects through the Get Galway Moving campaign.
From an infrastructure perspective organisations such as the Construction Industry Federation, through its western and midlands committees, has drawn up a list of key projects which are “shovel ready” and which form part of the National Development Plan; these include road, water, and electricity upgrades. These projects can move forward relatively quickly as much of the preparatory work has been completed. These type of projects are the first piece of the puzzle when it comes to enabling the planning and construction of homes and creation of sustainable communities.
However, most of these projects are based on planning work done five or even 10 years ago. You now have an opportunity to guide and influence the next generation of plans, so If you are interested in the future of Galway city then download the issues paper and get involved.
Enda McGuane MBS, MSCSI, MRICS, is a chartered planning and development surveyor and managing director of Winters Property Management in Galway. He is a member of the Council of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland.
