Social green spaces, cycling in the mix for CBD revival
More social green spaces are part of a plan to bring more people and vitality to Nelson’s city centre.
The Nelson City Council’s new city centre development programme, led by urban designer Alan Gray, aims to inject vibrancy back into the central business district, which has been hit by the departure of a number of retailers.
Over the next several years, Gray hopes to make the city centre a place where people want to live and work. Currently, more than 1000 people live within a kilometre of the area, but only 75 people actually live in the CBD.
‘‘We have some advantages – we’re quite compact, not sprawling,’’ he said. ‘‘There’s an advantage with that 1km, (which) is when I walk into town, I run into people.’’
Gray said this type of connection was something the right city planning could encourage, and something that was good for people, the community and the city.
‘‘Bumping into people is a great thing – it’s good for mental health, it’s good for the town. I find out more about what’s happening around the town from these than sometimes from my meetings here [with councillors and staff].’’
Gray hopes eventually to bring about a more social city centre and increase the number of people living in the CBD.
He said part of this was changing behaviour – encouraging walking and biking over driving short distances, for example – but another part was providing the structures to support them.
‘‘We need to work on the infrastructure to make people feel like cycling is a safe option. There’s some work to be done, but within that 1km around the centre city it’s just sitting there, waiting to be done.
‘‘We’re trying to work towards providing these social green spaces . . . Our city is green, we have all these parks and the river space, but with more people living here in the city centre, we’re going to need more spaces for them.’’
Gray said work would be done incrementally, and there wouldn’t be an overnight change, but in the meantime shortterm ventures would be tested, including the makeshift spaces programme and a ‘‘4 Lane Festival’’ in August.
‘‘Cities were traditionally service centres, where people came to shop, but great ones are places that have more social things, often museums and art galleries and events,’’ Gray said.
He said the shop closures were showing a ‘‘shift away from retail’’, but despite an exodus of chain retailers, there was still hope for a strong retail presence in the city. He hoped to work with landlords to encourage attracting more unique and boutique retailers to the region.