The future of Nelson’s CBD will become clearer with the development of a Spatial Plan setting out council’s 30-year vision for the heart of the city.
More than 40 different sectors of the community have been asked to be involved in preengagement discussions to develop a plan for what the city might begin to look like, in conjunction with the LongTerm Plan (LTP) 2021-31.
City centre development lead Alan Gray says the LTP sets out a $2m budget to explore and test some of the ideas put forward for the plan, with another $13m allocated towards more permanent builds such as an urban park.
“It’s a lot of money but in the context of building in the city with disruption to businesses, traffic management etc, we have to be quite strategic with that spend,” he says.
While the finer details of exactly what the $15m will be used for is still uncertain, Alan says surveys undertaken in the city make two things very clear.
“One is that winter is a really busy time in terms of pedestrian movements, and two is that we have a shockingly low registration of youth at play in our city.”
He says during the first survey of Upper Trafalgar St, before it was closed to traffic, just 83 ‘registrations’ of a staying activity were recorded over a two-day period. This could include someone sitting on a park bench or eating lunch in the area.
The next time the survey was undertaken, the section of the road had been pedestrianised, and the staying activity registration jumped to 1200 over the two-day period.
“Getting places for people is a really big part of the approach of the city centre vision because if you create places where people can stay a while, linger, have lunch, grab an ice cream and generally watch other people, you can really see real change in the city.”
He says the Spatial Plan will look at ways to create different spaces for different people to use at different times of the day.
“Not everything has to be a playground, but play can be incorporated in places where you least expect it. For example, little trampolines to jump on through an alley way. It would be great if in a little place like that you find some sort of little plaything.
“A good city like ours should have 10 really great little places but it’s not just council's role. Yes, we have to curate spaces but it’s partly council, partly people, it’s the arts community, everyone.”
He says one of the hurdles to developing the city is that “we all want progress, but nobody wants change”.
To have your say on how the CBD should be enhanced or what you’d like the LTP budget used for email submissions@ncc.govt.nz or visit www.shapenelson.govt.nz
