Gantly Road Housing. 17 new courtyard housing units as part of a new Age Friendly neighbourhood

Description

In 2021 Tipperary County Council wanted to establish a major regeneration programme by creating a new Age Friendly neighbourhood in the middle of one of its main towns. The project was intended to address the changing needs of the aging population, bring people and life back to the centre of towns and become a model, within the county, that other towns could experience and emulate.
The site chosen was in Roscrea and a masterplan was prepared. This development, of 17 housing units at Gantly Road, will become the first segment of that masterplan and is the beginning of this new neighbourhood.

Many rural towns, throughout Ireland, have been in decline for decades. The shops on main streets have been hugely impacted by a preference for out of town shopping, where space and free parking are in abundant supply. Traditionally the accommodation above these shops was lived in by the owners themselves so there was always a healthy, compatible mix of population and business in the very heart of the town. But sadly, this is no longer the case. Much of the accommodation above the shops on the streets in Irish towns today is now vacant, and has been vacant for a long time. The regeneration of the floors above the shops has become compounded by the fact that the accommodation available often no longer meets current day living standards for suitable occupation. This can become a vicious cycle for the town. The longer these properties remain unoccupied, the more dilapidated they become and the less attractive they are to reinvigorate. This results in a double whammy for the centre of many towns. The shoppers are leaving for the convenience of the shopping centre. The residents are not returning because the available accommodation has become outmoded.
Tipperary County Council is now seeking to tackle this decline with an innovative concept of establishing a new Age-Friendly neighbourhood in the middle of one of its towns, Roscrea. The benefits and key objectives of this strategy are
• It will proactively launch the regeneration and reinvigoration of a key site in the middle of the town that has large become sporadic and back land
• It will normalise the concept of Age Friendly living in the town centre
• It will demonstrate the effectiveness of alternative housing models in a rural Irish town setting
• It will engage with local communities and build upon existing Age Friendly projects already established
• It will reinvigorate the centre of an existing town with inhabitants who best suit this location. Residents who do not need large housing units, either internally or externally. Who may not have a car but are convenient for all amenities. Who want to live in a community environment that has been specifically designed to suit their needs
• It will orchestrate a development that will utilise public sector investment to incentivise private sector investment

The site, running the length of at Gantly Road which is just to the west of the main street, was selected and a masterplan was prepared in 2022. The overall development on completion will comprise over 100 new residential units with a range of amenity, commercial and support service facilities, all specificaly suited to the needs of more elderly residents, to create an entire new Age Friendly neighbourhood directly linked in a range of locations to the main street. The completed development will be built over 5 phases which will allow time for coordination with the variety of land owners, both public and private.
The first phase of the entire development will be the construction of a residential block on the site in the south west corner. This site was selected as one of the 4 winning sites in the RIAI’s Town Centre First Housing Competition in 2023 and it is the winning entry for that competition, 17 units by JFOC Architects in Dublin, that is now the basis of our entry for the National Age Friendly Recognition and Achievement Awards in the Housing Award category.

Aim of Initiative

To normalize the concept of Age Friendly living in the town centre
To provide an attractive and specifically designed environment for our aging population who are currently not generally being catered for with developments that suit their needs
To reinvigorate and regenerate the centre of one of our towns with the people who are most suited to living there
To create a best practice demonstration development for our other towns of how they can regenerate and repopulate in a successful way

Who is it aimed at

Our increasing elderly population
Isolated elderly residents in rural locations who are living in accommodation no longer suitable for them and would like to relocate to something that suits their needs
People isolated through their accommodation, urban or rural, and would like to be part of a community again

3 Steps critical to success

1. Tipperary County Council identifying the decline in its town centres and taking a proactive step to address this by committing to establishing a new Age Friendly neighbourhood
2. The production of a masterplan to give the entire area focus and direction and having an overall document to engage all of the interested parties for comment and reaction
3. The selection of the primary housing site on the masterpaln by the RIAI as one its 4 sites for its Town Centre First Housing Competition

3 Challenges in Planning / Delivery

1. Initial hesitancy in convincing the adjoining owners in the advantages and viability of a development of this nature
2. Many rural residents who know their current accommodation is inadequate are still unconvinced about moving to an urban setting. We would like to have it in place to show them how good it will be!
3. The initial intention was to build everything in one go but with different ownerships and different funding streams this was never going to be possible. The most available source of funding is the Dept. of Housing for the residential element so a decision was taken to separate out this site, which is self contained, so that the project could begin. It is hoped that the construction of these units will bring additional attention on the overall development and help the entire concert towards completion.

3 Outcomes / Benefits

1. Provide a bespoke living and community environment specifically for the needs of our elderly population. A group of people who are often overlooked in standard building devlopments.
2. It will regenerate the centre of one of our major towns, where nothing new has been built for many years, with a model development we intend to be example that our other towns will follow
3. Demonstrate the effectiveness of alternative housing models in a rural Irish town