Adare provides a number of civic amenities, schools, shops, pubs and churches for the rural hinterland, with a high concentration of urban buildings focused on the Y-shaped configuration of Main Street and Rathkeale Road. The character of the village is informed, however by the culturally significant man-made and natural elements: Adare Manor and its attendant landscape features and the wooded banks of the Maigue River contribute to Adare’s position as the premier tourist town in Co. Limerick.

 

The consistent nature of the built environment, particularly in terms of scale, requires management and forward planning, in order to allow the village to grow in a sustainable and cohesive manner. This is recognised in the Adare LAP, which in accordance with strategic policy focuses on:

  1. Rationalising the residential land use in the village to comply with the population targets as set out in the county development plan core strategy
  2. Ensuring development accommodates envisaged housing need and density to sustain vibrant socially balanced communities
  3. Ensuring that land use zones and objectives provide for adequate social and recreational facilities, in tandem with the growth of Adare
  4. Enhancement and development of the village centre
  5. Ensuring that the village develops in a way that protects and enhances the richness and integrity of the villages natural built and cultural heritage.

 

The proposed site to the South is zoned as a ‘Residential Development Area - Phase 1’  while the proposed site to North extends across three different zoning catchment areas. The proposed single storey houses and 1 no. Duplex building are located along the linear strip of land to the East within the ‘Residential Development Area-Phase 1’  zoning. An additional 2 no. Duplex buildings (one of which is a re-purposed existing stone structure) and historical Lime Kiln structure are located under the ‘Existing Residential’  zoning. These proposed residential dwellings are interlinked via a (one-way) shared surface which transverses through the ‘Open Space and Recreation’  zoning area.

 

Adjacent to the South Western boundary of the Southern Development Area the existing Deerpark woodlands is zoned as a potential Natural Heritage Area, and indeed the landscape naturally extends into the proposed site. It is the policy of the Council to ensure that the archaeological, natural and built heritage of Adare is protected.

 

Objective ED5: Protect the natural built and cultural heritage features from unwarranted encroachment of unsuitable development.

Isolated consideration of the Part 8 proposal inappropriate
The Part 8 development of 31 Housing units and 8 sites should not be considered in isolation but needs to be considered within an overall masterplan incorporating all the proposed developments in the...