Heart of Nelson Strategy

A strategy for the central city

Feedback for draft plan

Thanks to everyone who has shared their ideas on how they’d like to see Nelson grow with the Heart of Nelson Strategy. The period for initial feedback closed on Friday 8 August and 107 people shared their thoughts and visions for our city, along with the 70 plus people who attended the public meeting and all those who contributed to the blog and gave their time to be part of research groups.

The strategy will now be drafted throughout September and October, taking into account all of the feedback received during the consultation process. In November the final draft will be released for public comment (and input to the Long Term Council Community Plan review).

Background

Improving the Nelson City centre is a key priority for Council. The Nelson Urban Growth Strategy (NUGS) adopted by Council in December 2006 recommended that Nelson develop a central city strategy.

The strategy, which is being called Heart of Nelson, will look at the City Centre and the surrounding area, from the Marina to Victory Square, from Washington Valley  to the Botanics and all the bits in between.

It aims to better co-ordinate development, deliver the sort of sustainable urban design that people want and look more broadly than just the CBD. It will look at how the entire Central City could be improved.

The strategy will include a comprehensive set of planning documents that provide the vision, principles, goals and implementation actions to make Nelson Central City a high quality urban setting.

This will include things like:

• Urban design work
• Infrastructural work
• Management approaches
• Regulatory tools

The projected timetable for the strategy

August

Gathering ideas – including focus group meetings, a public meeting and opportunities to share thoughts

September – October

The plan will be developed from all the research and feedback that has been gathered

November

Finalised draft for release for public comment (and input to the Long Term Council Community Plan review)

February 2009

Analyse submissions from the consultation

March 2009

Revise and finalise the strategy.

March 2009 onwards

Implementation of the Heart of Nelson Strategy.

Consulting firm developing the strategy

Urbanismplus, led by renowned NZ urban designer Kobus Mentz, has been retained to develop the strategy.

The firm uses top Australian expertise and has previously been involved in creating urban development plans for Manukau City, Henderson (Waitakere), Porirua, Hamilton, Whangaparoa, Greater Christchurch, Shirley (Christchurch), Newmarket (Auckland) and Melbourne.

They also produced guidelines for urban design for the Ministry of the Environment.

History

Central Nelson has changed dramatically over the last 20 years through Council strategies. Here’s a look back in time:

1989

Key framework set by traffic re-routing, traffic calming, paving, pedestrianisation, and tree planting.

1995

Inner City Strategy focussed on amenity including heritage and building design on main streets and introduced street leasing policy for dining, vendors, events, festivals etc. Rules in the Resource Management Plan helped give effect to this.

1999

Inner City Enhancement Strategy included the following projects:

• Visitor Information Centre
• Ajax Ave closure and riverbank enhancement
• paving Upper Trafalgar Street
• enlarged ‘pocket park’ beside the Sports Café (old Public Trust building)
• some upgrade work in lanes and linkages across parking squares
• lane (and art) between Shanton and Council building and new traffic calming on Trafalgar Street/New Street
• Montgomery and Buxton Square – linkages and traffic calming and enhancements in Wakatu Square