New masterplan will explore potential for neighbourhood-led expansion of Patrickswell, including significant new housing, community amenities and infrastructure.
Limerick City and County Council has appointed Limerick Twenty Thirty DAC (LTT) to prepare the masterplanning and development management process for the Council's newly acquired 70-acre landholding at Patrickswell.
The appointment marks the next major step in progressing the lands, acquired by Limerick City and County Council following a significant investment from Mayor of Limerick John Moran's discretionary Mayoral Fund.
Strategically located at Attyflin, Patrickswell, adjacent to the M20 motorway and the Limerick Foynes rail line, the site presents an opportunity to support a significant neighbourhood-led, community focused expansion of Patrickswell and make an important contribution to meeting Limerick's long-term housing needs.
While residential development will be central to the masterplanning process, no final development framework has yet been determined. LTT will prepare a comprehensive assessment of the lands to establish their optimum long-term use and development capacity, including the potential to deliver housing at scale, alongside the community facilities, amenities, public open space, services and infrastructure necessary to support a new neighbourhood that dovetails seamlessly with Patrickswell village.
A central objective will be to ensure that any future development complements and strengthens the existing community of Patrickswell. The masterplan will consider how the lands can be successfully integrated with the village, including movement and connectivity, community facilities, public realm, open space and landscape, infrastructure, environmental considerations and the wider needs of the area.
As part of its role, LTT will procure and manage an integrated multidisciplinary team covering masterplanning, urban design, planning, architecture, transport and infrastructure, landscape, environmental assessment and other specialist disciplines. LTT previously managed the masterplanning and urban design strategy for the former Mungret College lands on behalf of Limerick City and County Council.
Public and stakeholder consultation, including engagement with the existing Patrickswell community and elected members, will form an important part of the masterplanning process. As the lands are not currently zoned for residential development, the masterplan will provide the evidence base to inform a proposed variation to the Limerick Development Plan.
Ahead of their longer-term development, the lands are also proposed to have an important temporary role as a park-and-ride location supporting transport arrangements for the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor.
Mayor of Limerick John Moran said: "When we acquired these lands with the Mayoral Fund, I said that housing isn't just a priority for Limerick, it is the priority. But building homes successfully means building communities, and that is what this next stage is about. We now have a once in a life-time opportunity to think ambitiously about how Patrickswell can and should grow over the coming decades. Villages should become towns not through private developer led sprawl but by careful top-down planning, like that we admire happened in Adare and Westport. But as we know from Shannon, planned towns also need a heart.
"There is potential here for a very significant number of new badly needed homes, but they must deliver a new heart to Patrickswell and complement its own identity and strong community and come with the infrastructure, amenities, public spaces, connectivity and services that make a neighbourhood somewhere people genuinely want to live. For me now, the most important next step is making sure that the local people must have a real voice in shaping what comes next and I have asked Limerick Twenty Thirty's management to make that consultation meaningful. I have known Patrickswell since my childhood and the real responsibility I feel to make sure that this works for Patrickswell is one I will do all I can to discharge."
The process will examine the site through a residential lens while testing the overall viability and sustainability of the emerging proposals and considering the wider needs of Patrickswell. This will include development feasibility, infrastructure and servicing, movement and accessibility, community uses, open space, environmental considerations, phasing and potential delivery and funding models.
Pat Nash, Chief Executive of Limerick Twenty Thirty, said: "The scale and location of these lands make this a particularly important opportunity for Patrickswell and for Limerick. Our role is to bring together the planning, design, infrastructure, commercial and delivery expertise needed to establish what represents the best long-term outcome for the site. Housing will be at the heart of that work, but a successful masterplan must go much further than calculating how many homes can fit on a site. We need to understand how a new neighbourhood would work, how it connects into Patrickswell, what supporting infrastructure and amenities are required and, critically, how the vision can ultimately be delivered.
"Limerick Twenty Thirty will approach this as a place-making and community-building project. The objective is to create a robust, viable and deliverable framework that can add to Patrickswell rather than compete with what is already there."
Príomh Chomhairleoir of Limerick City and County Council, Cllr Tom Ruddle, said: "For the people already living in Patrickswell, a proposal of this scale will naturally generate interest and questions about what it could mean for their community. That is why consultation and careful planning will be so important. The starting point must be that future growth should benefit Patrickswell as a whole. This is an opportunity not simply to provide new homes but to examine what additional amenities, connections, open spaces and community facilities can support both existing and future residents.
"Elected members and the local community will have an important role in that process. The objective should be a development that respects the character and identity of Patrickswell while helping the village realise the opportunities that sustainable growth can bring."
Pat Daly, Director General of Limerick City and County Council, said: "The acquisition of these strategic lands gives the Council an important opportunity to plan proactively for Limerick's future growth rather than simply respond to development as it arises. The masterplanning process will allow us to consider housing alongside transport, infrastructure, community facilities, public realm, environmental requirements and the long-term needs of Patrickswell. It will also provide the evidence necessary to inform any future statutory planning and rezoning processes."
The masterplanning programme will now commence with the procurement and appointment of an integrated multidisciplinary planning and design team. The current programme provides for an emerging development framework by the end of 2026, a draft masterplan in early 2027 and completion of the masterplan in spring 2027. The completed masterplan will be submitted to Limerick City and County Council's Forward Planning Directorate to inform the proposed Variation to the Limerick Development Plan.
