Swords Masterplan - Fingal County Council

3.4.3(c) COMMERCIAL/RESIDENTIAL – NORTH STREET NORTH
S W O R D S M A S T E R P L A N
Urban Design Principle Issue Urban Design Guidelines
Land Uses North Street contains a range of uses including commercial, retail
and community uses. A site design and development brief is required
to be prepared for this area.
Protect and enhance a mixed use typology in accordance with a future site design and development brief.
Topography The character area’s flat topography potentially will heighten the
Buildings here should fit in with the existing townscape which brings out Swords local topography. Consider the impact of buildings on sightlines
significance of landmark buildings within the area.
and views within this character area.
Views n/a
n/a
Public Open Space The River Ward with some mature tree stands skirts the western
edge of the block.
Potential opportunities to create new public spaces along the River Ward should be explored at the western edge of the block.
Legibility This southern edge of the block consists of a landmark building
Ensure that any key landmark building proposed within this block remains dominant within the streetscape. Consider the introduction of a
which assists in the areas legibility.
coherent signage strategy within this area and also across the town to improve legibility.
Connections The block is located along the direct route to the proposed Estuary
The pedestrian environment within this block should be made conducive to pedestrians and on-street car parking. Pedestrian crossings should be
Metro Stop. Pedestrian footpaths and the quality of the public realm
within this area are generally poor.
protected and enhanced, and on-street car parking should be improved upon.
Parking There are no significant off-street car parks in the area.
Consider carefully parking provision in the character area and explore the potential for additional public parking as part of new developments.
Safety and Security To the western and northern edge of the block there exists areas of Encourage where possible low boundary walls/hedging to ensure optimum surveillance of the public realm. Buildings should front onto the public
high walls and inactive frontages to the public realm.
realm to encourage ‘eyes on the street’. The principles of ‘Safer Places: the planning system and crime prevention’ by the ODPM should be
incorporated as part of any new development. Please refer to Appendix 2.0 of this document.
Protected Structures The area contains no protected or historically significant buildings.
n/a
Development Block
Size
The block layout is typically organic in form and layout.
Promote new block structures which should include flexibility and variation in size and shape to promote the distinctive organic nature of the town.
Urban Grain This area has an inconsistent loose urban grain which detracts from
the overall legibility of the area.
Opportunities to reinforce the urban grain should be explored particularly where there are breaks in the building line and gap sites.
Quality of Building
Frontage
To the north and east of the area there are buildings where the
frontage is of a negative quality.
Buildings should provide a high quality frontage directly to the street to provide good enclosure and enhance the public realm.
Building Orientation To the south of the block buildings maintain a strong continuity of
active frontage to the street.
New development to the east, west and north of the block should maintain strong continuity of building frontage along the street.
Building Height and
Massing
The massing of the 4 storey commercial block at the northern end of
North Street dominates the street.
A consistent height of up to five storeys is appropriate at this location. There is also potential for a landmark building within this gateway area with
heights exceeding the recommended five stories. This landmark building should retain an appropriate slenderness ratio of between 1:3 and 1:4. At
the planning application stage proposals for a landmark building within this area should be subject to a visual impact assessment in an effort to
ensure that the integrity of the area is not compromised.
3 0