We in the Ballyvolane/Dublin Hill Community Association welcome the opportunity to support and make comments on the Draft City Development Plan. 

In 2019,  with help and support from Cork City Partnership and The Atlantic Social Lab through Cork City Council, we produced the Ballyvolane/Dublin Hill and Environs Action Area Plan.  This was a community-consultation led Area Plan deeply embedded in the principles of public engagement and was prepared to guide the future development of the area that is beyond a bricks and mortar approach.  The Area Plan was presented to members of the Local Area Committee on 25th November 2019 and was broadly welcomed. Since that time, we have worked with an architect to draw up plans for a purpose designed building which would allow for multi-functional use.

The last number of years have drastically changed the nature, identity and function of the Ballyvolane/Dublin Hill area and the North Environs in its entirety. The Area Plan identified the current levels of social infrastructure in the area and deficits in the provision of, or availability of, services to the people of Ballyvolane/Dublin Hill. There was a clear need identified in this Area Plan for a building; indeed the main finding of the Plan was that the Ballyvolane/Dublin Hill Area urgently required a community building to provide for existing and future members of the  community. We are therefore particularly pleased to see the need for a community centre identified at paragraph 10.300 (pg. 412) and we strongly agree with the comment at the same paragraph that "the land release will require associated infrastructure, social and community services and facilities including education, community centre, sustainable and active travel, retail, community sports grounds and public open space". 

In light of the projected population and housing growth and strategic planning policy objectives, combined with the area's accessibility and proximity to the city and surrounding residential and employment districts, the Ballyvolane/Dublin Hill area represents a major opportunity for the city, and for the northside in particular, to embrace growth in the correct way by targeting service deficits and providing social and physical infrastructure in a proactive way. We therefore also welcome the fact that Ballyvolane has been named as a new sustainable neighbourhood as part of the Development Plan.