‘No silver bullet’ for town centre
An ambitious multimillion-dollar plan to fix a declining West Coast town’s central business district will only work if the Government pays, the plan’s author says.
Greymouth has floundered since the collapse of the mining and timber industries. Many of its heritage buildings are in need of earthquake strengthening, and many retail businesses have closed down.
The Government has provided $125,000 through the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) for a draft Greymouth CBD Redevelopment Plan to be written by consultant urban designers James Lunday, Karen Remetis and Zoe¨ Avery.
The draft plan is now out for public consultation but already has the widespread support of the Grey District Council, Development West Coast, the Greymouth Business Promotion Association (GBPA) and the landowner, Ma¯whera Incorporation.
The plan suggests condensing the town centre into ‘‘quarters’’ – including an artisan quarter, a civic quarter and a merchant quarter – painting buildings, planting more greenery, building affordable townhouses, improving the entrances, and dotting replicas of West Coast huts around the town to be used by craft sellers and community groups.
‘‘You don’t do containers, you do huts. Greymouth is a lifestyle centre. It’s an industrial port town. We need to celebrate the grittiness of the town. It has industrial solid buildings. But when you are in Greymouth you don’t know you’re on the West Coast, you need to bring that beautiful nature that is on your doorstep back into town by rewilding the CBD,’’ Lunday said.
At a recent public meeting in Greymouth, the authors presented examples of what Greymouth could look like, including pictures of tree-filled streets in Amsterdam and hospitality venues in Auckland’s Ponsonby Central.
Lunday previously worked for Regenerate Christchurch and came up with an ambitious and expensive plan for Christchurch’s Cathedral Square. Consultant urban designer James Lunday
He told The Press he could not put a figure on how much Greymouth’s plan would cost because it would ‘‘scare everybody off’’. However, he said if the council put in $100,000 a year for 10 years and was given $20m from central Government it could achieve enough to boost the town’s tourism sector.
He believed the private sector would take over and create more improvements once the regeneration reached a ‘‘critical’’ point, but said central Government and Development West Coast funding was essential for making the plan work. Development West Coast is a $124m trust set up in
2001 to grow the West Coast economy. Lunday said it should provide loans to help businesses earthquake strengthen heritage buildings in the town.
He said Greymouth should keep its heritage buildings because they were unique and it would cost less to strengthen and renovate them than to build new. The town also needed to showcase the history of both its gold rush settlers and iwi.
‘‘There is no silver bullet. You have to do it all. There is no point in improving the gateways if there’s still nothing to do when you get into town,’’ he said.
GBPA chairman Phillip Barnett, who owns Greymouth iSite, said the plan was exciting but he worried about where the money would come from.
‘‘It’s like going to a restaurant without knowing how much you have to spend and you are presented with a lovely menu with all these fantastic options. You go through it all and decide what you want but then realise you only have $5 and can only afford the chips.’’
The $3 billion PGF was a ‘‘once in a lifetime’’ chance for the town to tap into the Government coffers and the council could raise
$80,000 a year with a 1 per cent rate rise, he said.
‘‘There are simple things we could do like lighting up the town.
‘‘How many consultants do we need to tell us that? We need to get up and do it.’’
Grey mayor Tony Kokshoorn said the council would ask the PGF for more money for some of the key projects in the plan, such as a Discovery Centre, and he loved the idea of recreating miners’ huts for use around town. The council could start making some of the cheaper changes soon, like plantings and new signage, he said.
‘‘We need to celebrate the grittiness of the town. It has industrial solid buildings.’’