LDA unveils plans for 350 affordable homes on former ESB site in Wilton
Concept image of what the Land Development Agency's (LDA) scheme at the former ESB site in Wilton might look like
THE Land Development Agency (LDA) has published draft plans for 350 affordable homes in the Cork city suburb of Wilton, with the aim of delivering the first units in late 2028.
The homes, which include apartments and townhouses, will be a mix of cost rental and affordable purchases - schemes designed to assist renters who cannot afford private rented accommodation, and to help would-be homeowners who can’t afford to buy a house on the open market.
Apartments, which will be spread across three large blocks, will dominate the Wilton scheme, accounting for 334 of the 350 homes, of which 180 will be two-bedroom apartments, while 154 will be one-bedroom units.
The remaining 16 homes will be three-bedroom townhouses.
The two bedroom units will include three-person and four-person apartments with caps on income in order to qualify.
A planning application will be submitted early next year, and subject to planning approval, construction could start in 2026, with the first homes delivered in late 2028.
It’s an ambitious development across 2.7ha (6.7a) of former ESB lands,with buildings ranging in height from two to seven storeys and including a creche, a new public open space or “village green” in a mature parkland setting, cycle and pedestrian paths through the site and car and bicycle parking.
The draft plans are being launched now to give local residents, businesses and communities a chance to contribute to the initial consultation process, and to help shape the proposals.
Phelim O’Neill, Head of Property at the LDA said they were “acutely aware of the importance of meaningful community engagement” and that the LDA “wants to ensure that local people have an opportunity to meet with us and contribute to the design process to deliver a housing development that caters for families, first time buyers and older people in a key Cork suburb”.
A development brochure has been created, which outlines the initial design plan, and a public drop-in clinic will be held on Tuesday December 3 from 2pm – 7pm in the SMA Wilton Parish Community Centre, Sarsfield Road, Wilton. Communication channels including a dedicated email address, wilton@lda.ie, are now active. Information on the development is available at www.lda.ie/projects/wilton.
The LDA is already building the biggest public housing project in Cork city since the 1980s at the site of the former St Kevin’s psychiatric hospital in Shanakiel where the construction of 267 homes is well underway.
The agency is also partnering with developers BAM/Clarendon at the North Docks on Horgan’s Quay where 302 apartments are under construction, mainly for the cost rental market.
The Wilton scheme will bring the LDA Cork city tally closer to 900, while further lands in the Marina Quarter are also being examined, with the potential for another 900 homes.
At the Wilton scheme, on a largely undeveloped greenfield site, homes will run east to west, with apartment blocks facing south to take advantage of the southerly aspect.Townhouses will be to the west of the site, to minimise the impact on the existing homes at nearby Cardinal Court, while the seven-storey eastern apartment block, close to Sarsfield Road, is designed so as to preserve mature trees in this part of the site and to accommodate a new public open space in the form of a “village green”. The middle apartment block will range in height from four to seven storeys, while the western block, closest to the townhouses, will range from four-to-five storeys.
The LDA said the site is strategically located to take advantage of core bus corridors and future cycle and light rail networks. It’s next to Wilton Shopping Centre, across the road from Cork University Hospital and near Munster Technological University. Cork city centre is 4km away.
Mr O’Neill said the LDA’s Wilton draft plan has “connectivity, sustainability and affordability at its core” The development site in Wilton was first identified for affordable housing in the Government’s Housing for All strategy, published in September 2021. It was also included in the LDA’s Report on Relevant Public Land, which was published in March 2023. In August this year, the ESB agreed to transfer the lands to the LDA for a reported €3.1m.
The LDA, the State’s affordable housing delivery body, is in the process of delivering more than 10,000 homes on State-owned or acquired land and more than 8,000 through Project Tosaigh, where it partners with developers.
Earlier this week, it appointed a design team for a 290-unit affordable home project in Limerick’s docklands, where construction is expected to start in 2027. The project builds on its ongoing activity in Limerick where it is due to launch its first cost rental homes at the Mills in Castletroy shortly.
The LDA was established in 2018 amid an escalating housing crisis to repurpose unused State lands. Sinn Féin has pledged to scrap the agency pending a successful outcome for the party following next Friday’s General Election.
