CBD master plan ‘unworkable’
A group of Invercargill business owners fear for their future if a current innercity master plan goes ahead as is.
However, a key driving force behind the project has welcomed the feedback and concedes changes to the concept plans were almost inevitable.
Isthmus Group has put together a city centre master plan for the Invercargill City Council after the council agreed to a $20 million budget to make improvements to the streetscape.
The plan was revealed in November, with one of the key talking points being the narrowing of Tay St.
In the provisional plan, the section of Tay St from Dee St to Kelvin St will be reduced from four lanes to two. Green spaces are planned to be introduced.
As a result, street parking would be reduced with a push to increase foot traffic in inner-city Invercargill.
A group of business owners on the south side of Tay St believe that would crush their businesses.
The business owners spoken to felt a lack of parking, both for customers and vehicles with incoming and outgoing goods, would be ‘‘unworkable’’.
Young Reflections owner Joy Brown said the proposed plan would ‘‘kill every business on Tay St’’ if it went ahead.
‘‘I’m not opposed to change. We need change, but not . . . [by] wrecking every retailer on Tay St,’’ Brown said.
Close to 700 car park spaces will be created inside the new city block complex on the north side of Tay St for those visiting the CBD in the future.
However, Ambrosia Designer Florist owner Shani Hopgood didn’t expect that car park would work for the Tay St customers.
She said most of the concerned Tay St businesses were destination-type retailers selling the likes of furniture, bikes, and in her case flowers.
‘‘Right along the street we rely on the fact people can park at our door to load and unload goods,’’ Hopgood said.
Grant Bulling, of Ivan Bulling Furniture and Interior Design, said customers transporting goods to the new car park in the city centre block was not realistic for his business.
‘‘If somebody buys a coffee table, are they going to walk across two lanes and up into a four-storey car park building with it? I doubt it.’’
Bulling was excited by the city block development, across the street from his long-standing family business, but said if the proposed streetscape work went ahead they would have to move their business away from the central city.
‘‘It’s a pretty poorly thought-through plan, to be fair.’’
While the business owners’ concerns centred on the lack of available parking, they also raised questions about whether green spaces would actually attract people.
They said was Tay St resembled a ‘‘wind tunnel’’ and did not expect it to be that inviting.
The concerned businesses met with council representatives last week.
H&J Smith general manager John Green was enlisted to head a governance group that oversaw the master plan development work, and he also attended last week’s meeting.
Green said the challenge was balancing both what the master plan was trying to achieve with individual business owners’ concerns.
He said at this stage the drawings provided were simplified and should not be taken literally.
However, he stressed it was good that the businesses were providing feedback on the plan.
‘‘We need, as a city, to press on with Esk St and Don St to support the major investment that is under way,’’ Green said.
‘‘With Tay St we have more time, so I would expect that the prospects for changes to the concept plans is almost inevitable with further consultation from the community.’’
‘‘I’m not opposed to change. We need change, but not . . . [by] wrecking every retailer on Tay St.’’ Joy Brown Young Reflections owner