A joint initiative by Dublin City Council and the George's Street Business Association is to begin this autumn to revive the flagging commercial potential of the capital's historic southside area.
The council is to spend some €2.5 million on street lighting and purpose-built loading areas at points along the ribbon route from Camden Street through Wexford Street and Redmonds Hill to Aungier Street and down to the junction of George's Street with Dame Street.
The new facelift will be based on plans by architect Carina Walshe, an award-winner for the design work she did on the new Birmingham Airport.
There will be pay-and-display street-parking for the first time on George's Street and Aungier Street. The lighting plans will feature street baskets during the spring and summer and will link in with the Christmas lighting arrangements for the city-centre.
"The George's Street area was neglected for a very long time," said Mr David Baker, of Decwells DIY, the association's chairman, "but that has now all changed."
Relations between the GSBA and the City Council's planning department have improved dramatically following a bumpy episode in the late 1990s when the traders in George's Street came together to object to the planning permission granted to a Supermac outlet near the junction with Dame Street.
"We had formed the association initially in October 1998 to give voice to fears expressed by local traders over the quality bus corridor proposed for Camden Street, Aungier Street and George's Street," Mr Baker said.
"There was no consultation and no evidence of any plans to accommodate loading/unloading, deliveries, parking and so on."
In addition, it was decided to liaise closely with the Garda in the face of rising crime levels and to ensure that more gardaí were on the beat.
The GSBA effectively cut its teeth in its campaign to overturn the planning permission granted to Supermac by the City Council. The traders were aggrieved at the consequences for their businesses of a "planning moratorium" the council had introduced to restrict further commercial development in Temple Bar, on the other side of Dame Street. The net effect of this was to make the lower end of George's Street particularly attractive to developers who could not get into trendy Temple Bar. "It looked like George's Street was turning into a restaurant strip," Mr Baker said.
A successful appeal to An Bord Pleanála overturned the planning approval for Supermac in 1999 and welded the GSBA into a vibrant association of about 40 members.
A number of meetings followed with planning officials. Ultimately, the planners undertook in writing that they would not give any permission for such establishments in future.
Mr Baker said that the council would soon announce a new initiative aimed at including representatives from the various Dublin city trade organisations on a committee to co-ordinate planning policy in commercial areas.
Ms Walshe's plan is at the core of the street initiative. "Carina and the GSBA produced a photographic record of the street's present ugly face alongside a realistic projection of what could be achieved with a minimum of investment," Mr Baker said.