Chapter 8: Placemaking

Chapter 8: Placemaking

8.0 Introduction 

Placemaking seeks to achieve connections between people and the public places they use. Public place is often defined as spaces between our homes and the broader world, for example footpaths, streets, alleys, buildings, squares. These spaces are where our public life takes place, where we travel to and from work and school, where we sit, play, stand, talk, walk and cycle.  

The primary aim of placemaking is to make our urban places happier, healthier and more walkable, especially for younger and older people. Our public places need to be highly accessible and connected, safe and comfortable, multifunctional, sociable, green and sustainable.  
The location and type of development will be guided by the Development Plan through both the Settlement and Core Strategies. These strategies set out a spatial hierarchy for Waterford, and in turn, set the background for the future pattern of growth within the city and county.  

The Plan supports the development of a hierarchy of high quality, vibrant, consolidated and attractive urban settlements. This includes the development of Waterford as the Regional City for the South East supported by Tramore, and Dungarvan as a Key Town. This hierarchy is supported by a number of smaller towns and urban areas, and villages throughout the County.  

An important element of what shapes Waterford, is our open countryside and greenbelt lands. These separate the urban and rural areas which help to define the character of Waterford, providing a sense of place and local identity to individual towns and villages. The maintenance of this general pattern of development is important for the sound and sustainable development of the County as a whole. 

Placemaking can play an important role in assisting a clear separation between the urban centres and open countryside, whilst creating unique character areas within the core urban centres and associated suburbs of our city, towns and villages, to help make sustainable communities and places. 

There are also important links between the place-making and business investment/job creation. Place-making is identified as a key differentiator in Enterprise 2025, Ireland’s National Enterprise Policy 2015-25. It is a priority of the enterprise strategy to “realise the full potential of our regions through investments in place-making – developing places that are attractive for business investment and for people to live and work”. This is considered further in Chapter 4. Another important policy of the Council is to revitalise our towns and villages and spaces through creative and regenerative place-making, to assist in the delivery of compact growth, this is explored in more detail in Chapter 11.  

Through placemaking, which encompasses a multi-faceted approach to planning, design and management, the Council will continue to ensure the development of sustainable communities by supporting the development of adequate housing, retail, cultural, heritage, leisure, and employment uses, quality public realm, community facilities, design and standards and open space throughout the County. The following suggestions are provided as guidelines; however the underlining principles should be followed. 

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