Popular lawn saved
A proposal to convert the Rhododendron Lawn area at the Hamilton Gardens into car parking space appears to have been dropped.
A revised redevelopment plan for the popular visitor attraction that retains the flat, grassy area in the centre of the gardens will be put before the Hamilton City Council to ponder when it meets today, before being put out for public consultation.
The council was on the verge of giving the green light to an earlier plan that included the conversion of the lawn to car parking in September last year, when it was met with an eleventh hour groundswell of opposition.
A decision on the fate of the lawn – the venue for events such as the annual Sunset Symphony concert during the Hamilton Gardens Arts Festival and the Great Pumpkin Carnival – was then postponed a number of times thanks to the local body elections, a need for council staff to gather more information for councillors, and then the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Because the original redevelopment plan for the gardens went through a public consultation period in April and May last year, visitor destinations manager Lee-Ann Jordan is recommending the council engage in ‘‘further limited public consultation’’ for one more month. Once feedback on the revised plan has been received, the councillors will finally get to make a final decision.
Jennie De Groot, the spokeswoman of the speedily-formed group that lobbied for the retention of the
Rhododendron Lawn, said she would be tuning in to the broadcast of the council meeting to see what eventuated.
‘‘The process to now was not particularly transparent and the [original] plan for the gardens did not explicitly mention the lawn was going to be removed. You had to look at the plan to see that.’’
As well as retaining the lawn, the new plan for the gardens – endorsed by the Hamilton Gardens Programme Governance Group – shifts car parking to the upper part of the site, with an aerial walking bridge wending down to the entry precinct. This option also includes revised public transport, walking and cycling routes.
However there are price tags attached to both the original redevelopment plan and the upcoming round of additional consultation.
The cost of developing the plan to date is $38,000 which includes costs related to the first public consultation round, expert consultancy on option feasibility, legal advice, and staff time. The proposed further consultation period is estimated to be $35,000 which will include public drop-in sessions, an online survey, and promotion on social media.
It is possible some of the councillors at today’s meeting may find this an unpalatable prospect, given that the initial consultation process was robust: The council printed 500 colour copies of its plan, held information sessions, and its brochures specifically asked about car parking plans and the Rhododendron Lawn. Almost 200 people or groups submitted, 66 per cent of them supported the car parking plans.
In a letter to the council, governance group chairman Jerry Rickman agreed more consultation was needed, ‘‘but on this part only, without re-opening debate on other parts of the plan that the vast majority of submissions supported [or] had no issue with’’.