'A myth that people can rely on public transport': Cork city docklands apartments welcomed but concerns over lack of parking 

People living in Cork city centre cannot rely solely on public transport to get around, a city councillor has said in response to news that a proposed €100m development of over 200 dockland apartments will not have attached parking.

City councillor Paudie Dineen said it was “concerning” that plans for 217 cost-rental apartments on the former Sextant and Careys Tool Hire site on Albert Quay do not include a basement car park.

The plans for ‘The Railyard Apartments’, proposed by Cork City Council in partnership with the JCD Group, would deliver 217 new homes, consisting of a mix of studios, one, two, and three bedroom units, in a 24-storey tower which would step down to 12 storeys and then nine storeys.

Mr Dineen said it was “a myth” that 217 families living in the city centre would be able to depend exclusively on public transport.

“I welcome the development of the Docklands, and I welcome the development of homes, but we cannot have that amount of properties being built without providing adequate parking,” he said.

“It’s just not doable, but it’s a myth that people can just rely on public transport alone. Public transport is fine if you wish to go from A to B and back again but if you wish to travel anywhere else it’s very problematic.

“Therefore, people will always be reliant on cars, and they will need parking. With regards to the Docklands, I’ve been pushing that the council should encourage a couple of multi-storey car parks to be built within the development to provide the parking that will be required,” Mr Dineen said. 

The Lord Mayor of Cork, Green Party councillor Dan Boyle, said that an underground car park at the proposed Railyard development would increase the cost per housing unit by €50,000.

“In terms of developing the inner city and the city centre, the priority is in housing people, not cars,” he said.

“For every five cars you want to garage, you can have a housing unit, and these are the choices we’re going to have to make.” He claimed that cars are parked “92% of the time”, and he cited Utrecht in Holland, where public transport is free to people travelling to their cars, which are parked within a kilometre of their homes.

“It’s the people you think of first, not the cars, and in terms of how people get from A to B, you have a sustainable transport policy that helps them to do that,” Mr Boyle said.

The Railyard Apartments development is a collaboration between Cork City Council and JCD Group and arises from Cork City Council’s Competitive Dialogue procurement process which seeks to deliver solutions to social and affordable housing delivery in the city.

Cork City Council proposes to partner with an approved housing body for the ultimate delivery of this mixed tenure scheme.

The proposed mixed tenure cost-rental and social housing development, to include Rightsizing homes for older persons, is progressing through the Part 8 Planning process which includes a public consultation process.

The proposed development will be put forward for the approval of the elected members of Cork City Council later in the Autumn.

If planning is granted on the development, construction is expected to start in Q1 2025.

Fine Gael councillor Des Cahill said he was not concerned about the lack of parking in the proposed development.

“There’s an awful lot of people live in the city centre without parking and they don’t have cars.

“Personally I would have preferred to see an underground car park but that wasn’t part of the remit,” Mr Cahill said.

“There’s huge restriction in putting parking in the city centre, particularly in the docklands, which is a statutory requirement.” 

The housing charity Threshold welcomed the proposals, particularly as the scheme would deliver one, two and three-bed homes.

“Cost-rental, a relatively new tenure in Ireland, is vital for ensuring access to affordable and secure housing to a broad cohort of society,” Ann-Marie O’Reilly, Threshold’s national advocacy manager, said.

“This type of housing is needed throughout the country, and we look forward to seeing much more of it.” 

The CEO of Cork Chamber, Conor Healy, said the development would, as part the wider regeneration of the docklands, greatly enhance the fabric of the city, bringing additional residents and businesses into the centre of Cork.

“I hope that [this] announcement will serve to stimulate further development as part of the rejuvenation of the docklands area, but the Government must continue to prioritise supports and incentives for city-centre housing development as we look to Budget 2025,” Mr Healy said.