Kavinda Herath/Stuff
Invercargill city councillor Alex Crackett believes the inner city masterplan is a big leap forward for the city. It included Tay St and Esk St retailers concerns about the proposed reduction of street parking outside their businesses. “I’m a wee bit concerned some of the great things in this plan are being lost in the noise,” Cr Alex Crackett said. Crackett said a common problem that has been raised was the difficulty to get from Clyde St through to Tay St and Dee St by foot. She felt the planned reduction of traffic flow would help with the current problems and it was “a huge leap forward for the city”.
Robyn Edie
An Invercargill innercity master-plan has proposed to reduce part of Tay St - between Dee St and Kelvin St - from four lanes to two. The most vocal have been business owners along the south side of Tay St. HWR Richardson Property owns a large number of the Tay St buildings between Dee St and Kelvin St. HWR Richardson Property manager Sue Hill agreed the proposal to remove parking and delivery drop off areas was an issue. A suggested solution was to add a service lane, look at ways to use Wood St more effectively, and reduce the amount of green space in the plan.
As a result street parking would be reduced with a push to increase foot-traffic in inner-city Invercargill. A group of business owners on the south side of Tay St believe that would crush their businesses. The business owners spoken to felt a lack of parking, both for customers and vehicles with incoming and outgoing goods, would not be “unworkable”. Young Reflections owner Joy Brown said the proposed plan would “kill every business on Tay St” if it went ahead. “I’m not opposed to change, we need change, but not at the detriment of wrecking every retailer on Tay St,” Brown said.
Development was under way but it would take about 15 years to do everything planned. Carter said there was “clear evidence” that the area was struggling but there was also evidence of a revival. Auckland Council and the Crown owned much of the land in the town centre, Carter said. Lots of sites were development-ready, either having nothing on them or “poor quality development” that needed upgrading.
Supplied
A render of the planned Aroha 117-apartment development in Avondale. Auckland Council had already sold a number of sites, including to Ockham Residential and Kāinga Ora, which were building residential developments. The Aroha development, at the intersection of Great North Rd and Ash St, will have 47 KiwiBuild apartments in the 117-apartment complex.