Apaved paradise? Downtown Nelson 44% tarmac – map

Around 44% of downtown Nelson is made up of roads, car parking or car yards, a sustainable transport group says.

They’re calling for the Nelson City Council to move car yards into industrial areas to free up valuable downtown real estate for housing and other uses. But car yard owners say being downtown and being visible is essential to the success of their businesses.

Nelson sustainable transport group Nelsust convener Peter Olorenshaw prepared the infographic by taking the area from the centreline of the ring roads of Halifax St, Rutherford St, Selwyn Place, and Collingwood St, and removing footpaths from those calculations.

He was stunned to find that 44% of that area was occupied by cars, car parking and car sales yards.

This was verified by NCC, who did their own digitalisation of the city centre in 2020, and also concluded that the city’s current parking and vehicle street coverage in the city centre was 44%, of which was 29% car parking and 15% carriageway.

Olorenshaw said he was told by city council staff this figure was ‘‘quite high compared with other comparable cities in NZ’’. This was ‘‘in no way compatible with being a smart little city or with encouraging mode shift’’.

The issue was highlighted in the group’s submissions to the council’s Future Development Strategy and the annual plan in 2020-21, and was raised by Councillor Rachel Sanson in an Infrastructure Committee meeting on August 4.

Sanson said there was an area near Rutherford Hotel, which was becoming ‘‘a kind of high end car yard’’. ‘‘I think that there’s a lot of sentiment in the community that those kinds of locations would be far more valuable to the community [if] used for kind of intensified housing, apartments, and

‘‘You’ve got to be high vision.’’

Karl Lyford, Motoring Solutions

that kind of thing, especially when we’re trying to reduce carbon emissions and mode shift to more public and active transport and move away from so much reliance on single occupant cars.’’

Discussions around modal shift didn’t mean that ‘‘no one’s going to be allowed to drive a car’’, she said.

‘‘It’s really much more nuanced than that. It’s about trying to make it easier and safer and more accessible for everybody to get around by active and public transport, whether that’s by walking, mobility scooter, wheelchair or bicycle.’’

The Car Company Ltd managing director Shane Drummond said as retail outlets, he would not like to see car yards zoned in an industrial area.

‘‘Proximity is a strong reason why we are where we are,’’ he said. ’’A major part of our business is used cars, and people want to see, touch and drive them.’’

Karl Lyford, the owner of Motoring Solutions, agreed saying the move from a central Richmond site on Queen St to an industrial location three months ago led to a 70% drop in sales.

Operating in an industrial zone, Lyford said, ‘‘sucks’’, so he’s now looking for another retail site. ‘‘I’ll be moving if I can, or closing, one of the two. We’ll see what happens first.

‘‘You’ve got to be high vision. You’ve got to have people walk past and see the cars, and drive past so they fall in love with it.’’

Lyford sells mostly used Japanese and Australian imports. He’s been in the business since 1998 and says Nelson is a ‘‘very hard place’’ with ‘‘too many car yards’’ in the region.

Apparently, parking is no easier for customers in an industrial zone – as the streets tended to be filled by staff who worked in local businesses. Lyford said on his street, one side of the whole road was painted with yellow lines and there were ‘‘two parks for the whole street’’.

Sanson asked council at the end of July if there had been discussion on the possibility of rezoning car yards as an industrial activity.

Council officers responded that ‘‘existing car yards do have existing use rights to be located in their current sites’’. However, ‘‘over time, and with new zoning provisions we could expect a change’’.