Public asked to submit views on College Green plaza

Dublin City Council is calling on members of the public to get in touch with their views on the re-development of College Green into a new civic plaza.

The council has opened an online survey to hear the views of the public ahead of submitting plans to An Bord Pleanála for approval.

While the proposed €8 million pedestrian and cycle plaza for College Green is not expected to be in place before the end of 2018, the council is about to appoint a design team to develop proposals for the new civic space and is looking for ideas from the wider public.

The appointed designers will receive the public's contributions from the Imagine College Green! online survey in their brief for the civic space.

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The survey includes questions such as how the public gets to College Green, why they visit the area along with their view on seating in the newly developed plaza.

The online consultation opened to the public on January 12th and will remain open for two weeks until Thursday, January 26th.

The Luas Cross City system is scheduled to be completed and in operation by December 2017.

Dublin City Council has warned that the opening of the new Luas lines will require major traffic management changes at College Green but added that the changes in traffic flow would present an opportunity to develop the new civic plaza.

The council announced in October 2016 that plans for the civic space, which would prohibit all vehicles crossing College Green to and from Dame Street, will have to be submitted to An Bord Pleanála for approval. It intends to make the submission to the board by March 2017.

Timelines for the project released in October indicated that if the council secures permission from the planning board, the plaza would be completed by the end of 2018 at the earliest. However, it added that construction would continue into 2019.

The council, which had intended to pursue the scheme under its own “in-house” planning process and to have the traffic changes in place by June 2017, held a public workshop on potential designs for the plaza in November.

The council’s public consultation process in recent months has revealed significant opposition to the proposals from several prominent business interests in the city. Following consultant’s advice, the council decided the plans needed the approval of An Bord Pleanála.