Donabate Urban Centre Strategy Fingal County Council

C
U
L
T
U
R
A
L
D
O
N
A
B
A
T
E
7.0 Vision for the Urban Centre
ENHANCING DONABATE’S EVENING ECONOMY
The vision for Donabate's Main Street is to ensure that the
vitality of the evening economy is promoted further and sustained
in a managed way, taking into consideration the impacts on
neighbouring land uses.
The evening economy needs to be developed along the Main Street
to attract more high quality restaurateurs and café operators
to diversify the evening economy offer. The illustration below
highlights that the existing Main Street currently presents a low
amount of evening economy uses.
The strategy aims to reverse these trends by outlining a balanced
pattern of land uses that provides for the needs of commercial
users, whilst creating a distinct new Main Street that benefits
from a diverse mix of uses, cultural activity and amenities that are
available throughout the day and evening.
Existing evening uses in Donabate
BUILDING UPON DONABATE’S HERITAGE
Donabate’s cultural and built heritage is an important element
of its attractiveness as a commercial, cultural and residential
town centre. Measures which could help to enhance Donabate’s
heritage include:
• Careful consideration of the use of materials and colours
for future streetscape schemes. Please refer to page 45 for an
indicative material palette
• An assessment of the need for additional measures to give
protection to an area, monument or buildings
• A promotional exercise in partnership with Fingal County
Council to raise awareness amongst businesses and residents
Proposed evening/cultural focus in Donabate
IMPLEMENTING A DISTINCT SIGNAGE SYSTEM
Legibility of key cultural facilities such as the leisure centre and
demesnes within the town centre is low and therefore the profile
of these facilities are low. The strategy proposes to implement
a distinct signage system that would help to promote a unified
identity for Donabate, taking consideration of its historic
environment, and improve general legibility. The signage should
include:
• Information boards on Main Street, providing a plan of the centre
and highlighting places of cultural or historical interest
• Signposting to key sites such as the train station in the centre, to
aid way finding and increase legibility
• Gateway welcome signs at key entry points announcing Donabate
town centre
Donabate Urban Centre Strategy 28