Limerick City Council's new strategy for the city centre represents a "once in a lifetime opportunity" to reverse the decline of its Georgian core, Newtown Pery, according to the Irish Georgian Society (IGS).
In its submission on the draft strategy, the society said the main purpose of a conference it organised last May was to address the continued neglect of Newtown Pery in light of the continuing and largely successful regeneration of Limerick's riverside.
The IGS noted that Newtown Pery - Ireland's largest Georgian area outside Dublin - had been laid out in the 1760s on a grid plan by the Italian architect Davis Ducart and had reached the pinnacle of its social and commercial success in the mid-19th century.
But decline and neglect had "left its elegant houses and streetscapes marred by over a century of ill-considered and poorly executed works: subdivided houses, PVC windows, dangling overhead wirescapes and rusted and buckling boundary railings".
As Newtown Pery's Georgian buildings and streetscapes "comprise one of Limerick's major and most defining assets", the IGS called on the city council to give priority to the development of a regeneration strategy based on successful European models.
It noted that a model for heritage-led regeneration had been developed through the Inherit programme, an EU-funded initiative aimed at promoting investment in heritage assets, so as to facilitate the regeneration of historic cities and towns.
The programme was built on the success of Newcastle upon Tyne's Grainger Town Project - a conservation planning exercise underwritten by £40 million (€60 million) in public funding, which attracted a further £160 million (€240 million) in private investment.
The IGS submission called on the council to give Newtown Pery official status in its city centre strategy as an area of special historical, architectural and tourism interest, and to develop a rolling programme for its conservation and sustainable reuse. "Given the scale of investment required in Newtown Pery, the success of any potential regeneration scheme calls for a big vision that aims to 'form the basis of applications to Government for major funding and other taxation incentives' [ as the strategy says]".
If the area was to be designated as a business improvement district, it said that for such an initiative to enhance its historic streetscapes the strategy "will need to identify both financial and technical resources to assist businesses in its implementation".
The IGS called for the establishment of an urban regeneration partnership to manage and monitor the conservation of Newtown Pery, positioning the area as "the centrepiece for a distinctive Limerick experience" both for visitors and for the city's residents.
Describing Limerick as "architecturally and scenically, one of Ireland's outstanding historic cities", the society said the regeneration of its Georgian core "will require wide support and commitment from the city council and from all relevant stakeholders".
