Suggestions for utilising small city owned sites in Dublin to provide housing and tackle dereliction

1. Ciarán Cuffe
Lecturer in Planning
City Councillor
Small Sites - Large Potential

2. Housing, homelessness and the Living
City
• Scale of the Challenge
• New Living City Scheme
• Importance of small sites
• Potential of self-build

3. Housing List
• More than 42,000 people,
including almost 16,500
children, are waiting to be
housed by Dublin City Council,
the highest number ever
seeking social housing in the
city.
• The city’s social-housing
waiting list is made up of
21,592 applicants, 1,368 of
whom have been on the
waiting list for more than 10
years.

4. • Affordability and supply
• Increase in local authority housing
• Faster turn-around on empty units
• Mature rental market with certainty
-Fair rent, fixity of tenure, freedom of sale
• Sustainability and availability of inner city sites
Scale of the Challenge

5. New Financial Approaches
European Investment Bank
Semi-state pension funds
Trade Unions
Credit Unions
Long term leases
Limits to rent increases over CPI
Mature rental market

6. • The Living City initiative focuses on the regeneration of
retail and commercial districts and encouraging people to
live in the historic centres of Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny,
Limerick and Waterford.
• The aim of the Living City initiative is to bring life back into
the heart of the relevant cities by offering tax relief for
qualifying expenditure incurred on the refurbishment or
conversion of certain buildings where conditions are met.

8. DIT

10. Living City Initiative

11. Residential Relief
• The individual who incurs the qualifying expenditure (which must be equal to at
least 10% of the market value of the property prior to refurbishment/conversion)
is entitled to a deduction from their total income for each of 10 consecutive years
of an amount equal to 10% of the qualifying expenditure.
• The property must have been originally built for use as a dwelling prior to 1915.
So, for example, an old derelict church which is to be converted into a dwelling
does not qualify, since it was not originally built as a dwelling.
• The floor area of the property must be between 38 and 210 square metres (m²). If
the property comprises an apartment contained within a larger building it is only
the floor area of the apartment which is relevant, not the entire building.

12. Commercial Relief
• The relief is given in the form of an accelerated capital allowance for "qualifying
expenditure" on refurbishment or conversion of premises within the special
regeneration areas. Unlike the residential element of the relief, the
commercial/retail element is not restricted to pre-1915 buildings. The capital
allowance is given at the rate of 15% of qualifying expenditure for each of 6 years
and 10% in year 7.
• In addition to the capital allowances which the claimant is entitled to in any year
any unused allowances from previous years can also be used. Capital allowances
are unused if there is insufficient income in any year against which the capital
allowances can be set. At the end of the 7 years, unused capital allowances from
earlier years can, in general, be carried forward and set against future income of
the business. However, in the case of passive investors, it should be noted that any
unused capital allowances under this scheme which are carried forward beyond
the tax life of the building to which they relate, are immediately lost.

13. Living City Obstacles
• Planning Permission
• Disability Access certification
• Fire Safety Certification
• Project supervisor for design process Health and
Safety Plan
• Environmental Health
• Protected Structures Conservation Officer
• Poor quality public realm
• Multiple uses and ownership
• 210 sq. m. limit for residential

14. Living City Opportunities
• One Stop Shop within Local Authority
-Living Over the Shop, University of York
• Eliminate floor area limit
• Improved design/management of public realm
• Improved walkability, bikeability, liveability
• Development of keynote sites: large and small

15. Large Vacant/Underused Sites
DIT

16. Small Acupuncture Sites
DIT

17. Ryder's Row 150 sq. m. 4 stories

18. Ryder's Row 150 sq. m.
Potential for 4 stories mixed-use building

19. Ryder’s Row, Dublin 1

20. Henrietta Place, Dublin 1

21. Sean McDermott Street, Dublin 1

22. Friary Avenue, Smithfield, Dublin 7

28. Address Size and description
Henrietta Place, Dublin 1 170 sq. m. contract car parking, Architectural Conservation Area. Owned by
Dublin City Council
Ryder’s Row/Capel Street, Dublin 1 148 sq. m. derelict palisade fenced site. Owned by Dublin City Council
Sean McDermott Street, Dublin 1 273 sq. m. Facade of temple-fronted granite Greek Revival Presbyterian church.
Owned by Dublin City Council
Friary Lane, Smithfield, Dublin 7 77 sq. m. Derelict cafe, rubbish and surface car parking. Owned by Dublin City
Council
Halston Street, Dublin 7 174 sq. m. One storey shed, concrete wall, some surface car parking. Owned by
Dublin City Council.
North Brunswick Street, Dublin 7 537 sq. m. palisade fenced derelict site at corner with Church Street. Owned by
Dublin City Council.
North King Street, Dublin 7 977 sq. m. Successful pop-up park after 30 years of dereliction, local authority
housing plans for site. Owned by Dublin City Council.
Ardee Street/Cork Street, Dublin 8 71 sq. m. Prominent site adjacent to important Protected Structure. Ownership
is unknown.
Clanbrassil Street, Dublin 8 236 sq. m. Overgrown site next to Vincent Street Flats beside South Circular
Road. Owned by Dublin City Council
Digges Street/Aungier Street, Dublin 8 95 sq. m. Former Licensed Premises, attractive red brick building on prominent
Corner Site. Owned by Dublin City Council
Fishamble Street, Dublin 8 153 sq. m. Currently site of ‘Dublin House’ project led by Dublin City Council.
Owned by Dublin City Council
Francis Street, Dublin 8 198 sq. m. Derelict buildings, subject of Making a Modern Street Publication in
1990.
Kevin Street, Dublin 8 271 sq. m. Derelict since road widening in 1980s. Owned by Dublin City Council.
New Street, Dublin 8 211 sq. m. One storey derelict house recently demolished. Owned by Dublin City
Council.
South Earl Street, Dublin 8 121 sq. m. Prominent palisaded fenced site in Liberties. Ownership is unknown.
Werburgh Street, Dublin 8 175 sq. m. Palisaded fenced site, former Derby Square. Owned by Dublin City
Council.

29. Acupuncture Sites
• Site Area 3,888 sq. m.
• Say 4 stories residential over
commercial/cultural
• 15, 552 sq. m. @75 sq. m. +20% = 175
dwellings, say 350 people housed
• Less dereliction, anti-social behaviour
• Less long-distance commuting
• Commercial opportunities etc.

30. Fishamble Street: ‘Dublin House’ Project

31. North King Street: Pop-up Park

32. Small Acupuncture Sites
• Provide clear title to local authority owned
sites
• Acquire privately owned sites
• Prepare sketch plans and agreements
• Release for sale, subsidise if necessary
• Encourage small builders, self-builders
• Small site scan make a big difference

33. Self-Build in the Netherlands

34. Buiksloterham in Amsterdam Noord

35. Buiksloterham in Amsterdam Noord
• In the coming years, 3,500 homes and 200,000 m² of
workspaces will be built in the former industrial area
Buiksloterham in Amsterdam Noord. The development
of the area will take place in an entirely new way,
namely in a ‘circular’ fashion.
• This means that (building) materials and raw materials
will be recycled as much as possible, there will be a lot
of space for electric cars and that residents and
companies in the area will generate their own energy.
Building projects must fulfil sustainability requirements
and the public space will be designed as sustainably as
possible with, among other things, LED lighting and
separate waste collection.

36. Self-Build in Amsterdam
“Current times call for a radically different approach:
developments on a smaller scale that facilitate swift
adaptation to changing demands. Self-build is a
development model in which the future inhabitant
plays an important part in the dwelling’s realization,
and it dovetails perfectly with the current demand for
fast, flexible and diverse development.”
City of Amsterdam

38. City of Amsterdam
Do-it-yourself plots

43. Amsterdam Self-Build
• For the City of Amsterdam, self-build is about
offering opportunities to develop and build
your own home – taking personal control,
realising your own ideas and choosing your
partners yourself.
• The ambition is for a quarter of new-build
housing to be self-build from 2016, in diverse
forms that cater for an array of target groups.

44. Conclusions
• Increase in housing demand/rent /price
• Significant State investment required
• Innovative financial instruments needed
• Unrealised potential of Inner City
• Living City Scheme needs revision and hand-
holding
• Importance of small sites
• Potential for self-build

45. Further Information
• Dublin Region Homeless Executive
www.homelessdublin.ie
• Plan Amsterdam
https://www.amsterdam.nl
• Living City Scheme
http://www.dublincity.ie/
Search for Living City
• Revenue Commissioners
http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/leaflets/living-
city-initiative.html/