Park for youth and young at heart
A youth pop-up park will soon be installed in central Nelson.
The park will take shape on a vacant 1500 square metre riverside site in Halifax St between Elma Turner Library and Burger King.
It will include a pump track for skaters, cyclists and scooters along with a basketball court, table tennis, planters, picnic tables, hammocks, seating and an imagination playground for younger children.
The imagination playground will have foam building materials children can use to construct their own play structures. The basketball court will be solar-lit.
A container will be positioned to provide shade along with overnight storage for the equipment.
Nelson City Council city centre development programme lead Alan Gray said the design was finalised this week and he hoped the ‘‘young and young at heart’’ could be enjoying the park by late August.
Called the Riverside Youth Popup Park, the development is a joint project between the city council and the landowner, Wakatu¯ Incorporation.
Wakatu¯ Inc property and commercial group general manager Iain Sheves said Wakatu¯ Incorporation was happy to support the project by providing a temporary location.
‘‘The council approached us with the idea of using the area for a new space for children and families,’’ Sheves said.
‘‘We’re planning to redevelop this space as part of the Mahitahi river precinct project, which is about creating a stronger link between the river and the city centre, and helping make the Mahitahi river precinct an attractive, vibrant place.
‘‘However, the redevelopment is a couple of years away, so we are pleased to be able to support this fun, temporary addition to community spaces for young people and families.’’
‘‘We’re planning to redevelop this space as part of the Mahitahi river precinct project, which is about creating a stronger link between the river and the city centre.’’
Iain Sheves Wakatu¯ Inc property and commercial group general manager
Gray said the materials in the pop-up park could be moved to other sites in the city if events were held.
The idea for the project was sparked by the outcome of a council survey that measured the footfall of different age groups throughout the city.
‘‘We found that out of all the activities we measured, less than 2 per cent included children playing,’’ Gray said. ‘‘Less than 5 per cent of the people we saw in the city centre were under five years old.’’
The site used to have a building that was originally used as a tannery. It then had a number of different tenants; a bike shop most recently. That building was demolished because of seismic issues and the site was earmarked as a car park until the survey results prompted a rethink about the ways to encourage more children and families into the city.
Gray said many young people went to the library to wait for their parents to finish work. There was a swing set outside the library but the pop-up park would make the area ‘‘even better’’.
‘‘I thought, let’s see if we can try something different and take a holistic approach to the whole site that connects with the river and goes some way to solving the lack of play options for children,’’ he said.
Councillor Peter Rainey, who is chairman of the council’s central city working group, said the pop-up park was one idea for making a more welcoming city centre. Another proposal was a range of options for changing the streetscape on some inner city streets – a proposal now out for public consultation.
The reusable and relocatable equipment, with a projected lifetime use of more than 10 years, cost $225,000 with the project to be funded from existing city development budgets, partly derived from car-parking fees.
There are also costs associated with preparing the site, which are still to be finalised.
Nelson mayor Rachel Reese said the new pop-up park was in line with the council’s plans to revitalise the city centre and riverside precinct.
‘‘I can’t wait to see shooting hoops, racing on the pump track and imaginations running wild in the pop-up park – a long-awaited place for our tamariki to enjoy in the city centre,’’ Reese said.