Beloved lawn — have your say
The Hamilton City Council has voted by 12 to one in favour of giving the public a second chance to have their say on the future of a much-loved part of the Hamilton Gardens.
A revised redevelopment plan for the city’s major visitor attraction retains a community gathering space known as the Rhododendron Lawn, that an earlier version of the plan envisaged being converted into a car park.
The new plan was presented to councillors to consider at an online meeting on Thursday and they gave it a preliminary thumbs up.
Although the conversion of the lawn to car parking was apparently undetected by people who saw the original plans during a public consultation round last year, it subsequently became the focus of a storm of opposition, including an online petition that generated about 5000 responses.
At Thursday’s meeting the council moved to initiate a second round of consultation – estimated to cost around $35,000 – before making a final decision on the fate of the lawn.
However, it is only the Rhododendron Lawn that will be the subject of the new consultation round and not the wider plan for the Gardens – a point the politicians were keen to emphasise.
‘‘We need to be very careful this is ring-fenced. It’s only about the Rhododendron Lawn,’’ said councillor Mark Bunting, who said any repeat of the 11th hour protest should be avoided.
‘‘If the public picks up on things late, it can get pretty ugly ... [however] the people of Kirikiriroa Hamilton should be thanked for caring so much about their GGrdens.’’
The revised plan shifts the car parking space to an upper area of the Gardens.
Cr Rob Pascoe, who voted against more consultation, said he was wary of the lawn uproar being used as a precedent by people to overturn other council decisions and initiatives.
‘‘I thought we got it right first time.’’ Mayor Paula Southgate said belated or not, the furore showed a need for the council to be ‘‘agile’’ in responding to citizens’ concerns.
‘‘We live in a world where people have access to social media and opinion sharing.
‘‘Occasionally we are going to hear from the public when they think we have missed the mark.
‘‘We should be pleased that this is such a well-loved place. At the end of the day we are going to get a much-improved garden.’’