LAST WEEK, IT was announced that the owners of Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre had received permission from Dublin City Council to go ahead with their plans to redevelop the centre.

The public reaction to this decision was not good.

Between vox pops and instagram videos, articles and online commentary, the contentious decision provoked strong feelings of frustration amongst the people who Dublin belongs to – its population.

A poll in The Journal revealed a result of 81% of people who hated or didn’t like the planned redevelopment. 

What has been proposed for the redevelopment makes sense from a pragmatic perspective and based on market needs. It includes the reconfiguration of the retail spaces to create larger units to attract high(er)-quality retailers; 29,251 square metres of A-rated office space that appeals to multinationals; a two-screen cinema, and bringing the streetscape alive again on South King Street by opening up storefronts along the street that is currently dead street space.

Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Would it have felt progressive and within the interests of the city dwellers to turn the centre into something more civically minded, like a bustling food market with a botanical garden a la the Atocha station in Madrid, with retail, cultural space and residential units on the upper levels? Absolutely. But ‘commercial viability’ and the ‘market decides’ are the mantras for the world we live in, and international retailers and offices are where the money is at. Until we have a planning system that plans for the city we need rather than for who has the most money, this is the system we have to accept.

Notably, the planning permission was granted with an ask for the owners to pay a 4.2 million development contribution to the council and a 1.3 million contribution to the planning authority in respect of the Luas........

© TheJournal