Making the most of what we've got

BY GEOFF COLLETT

Welcome to Nelson.

One of the most heated public debates seen in Nelson this year was over the merits or otherwise of public art. Such controversy hasn't fazed the group which has put the Heart of Nelson strategy together.

It argues that "there is not a lot of evidence in the central city ... of Nelson's creativity, of its original inhabitants and history, or other aspects of what makes this city unique". So it wants more public art, more signs, and more recognition given to small historic precincts and Maori culture. It wants a common "identity theme" that lets people know they have arrived in Nelson including installing appropriately designed signs or features at city entrance points.

The plan has it that artistically inspired designs will become commonplace, incorporated into everything from new buildings to bike stands. Every council project in the inner-city will have to consider those "identity themes", to "enhance the central city's identity". Design guidelines for the frontages of new and redeveloped city buildings will be updated, and extended, to the ring road and parking squares for example.

Mr Jackson argues that incorporating artistic elements into new works need not be expensive or complicated, provided it is planned for; often, it comes down to taking care with the aesthetics, and attention to detail. Achieving a consistent, co-ordinated approach is key.

STAYING A WHILE

It's one thing to convince people to head into town; it's another to get them to stay. Nelson doesn't necessarily do that well now, it seems. As the strategy itself says: "Nelson's major visitor attractions are not readily visible, nor easily accessible."

It's not just visitors who need tempting. Deputy mayor Rachel Reese says a common complaint from parents is finding a place to take time out with youngsters. So more parks are on the drawing board, including "pocket parks", as they've been dubbed small corners of public space turned over to areas where people can comfortably and safely relax.

The first is intended for the Bank Lane side of Montgomery Square.

There are suggestions of new skateboarding and biking parks for teenagers; themed play areas for children and families; fitness and off-road bike trails; the long-talked-of extension of the Founders Park railway into the city.

But as a brief wander through town over almost any winter weekday will underscore, Nelson doesn't always have the people here to make it bustle all day every day, no matter what attractions might be offered.

Mr Jackson acknowledges the point, and says the city's effort to tap into more of the conferences and events market, outside of the peak summer months, is critical.

Plus there's inner-city living. In its current form, the opportunities and appetite for many people to call the central business district home look slim, so the focus is on near-by residential neighbourhoods, principally Victory Square, where longer term the council could rezone to allow "medium density" housing.

It is close enough to town for residents to be willing to walk and has the potential to be economic for developers.

"Look at Wellington or Melbourne," Mr Jackson says. "They're safe to walk around because everybody doesn't clear off to the suburbs at night."

NO TO MALLS

Those who love nothing better than a good mall should start wailing and gnashing their teeth now or at least expect to spend the rest of their mall-trawling days in Richmond or further afield.

The strategy makes it clear that large shopping malls won't be welcomed in central Nelson, even if a determined developer could find the space to build one.

The city's resource management plan is to be amended to "restrict" new indoor malls in the central city and so protect the traditional main street strip shopping. "Nelson is not going to have a mall," Mr Jackson says bluntly, and the strategy group decided that should be stated explicitly.

Actually, it's a slightly hypothetical argument, because nobody's talking about such a plan and accumulating enough land would be challenging. But the what-if question still hung there: "If somebody bought a really big block of land [to build a mall] and stripped all of the shops out of the main street ... that's going to be bad for the city centre," Mr Jackson reasons.

Not that a no-mall-in-the-city rule is any kind of guarantee of continued good health for Trafalgar St. Besides, Richmond's traditional shopping mall, the old Honda site at Annesbrook awaits more large-format retail development, to join the Mitre 10 hardware barn there, presumably once the economic conditions are kinder.

Mr Jackson says there is potential there for floor space equal to another two of the hardware barns, and homeware-type stores will likely be targeted for tenancies. "That could see some of our main-street-type retailers go out there."

But the strategy also suggests fighting fire with fire, in a manner of speaking: why not bring one of the large-format retailers into the city centre, with the pulling power to underpin the wider strip?

The strategy suggests Wakatu Square as home to a large-format store to serve that anchoring role. It is long-term stuff, and will rely on the council being able to convince a developer of the sense of such a vision.

But thinking big aside, the challenges for those who want to keep attracting the shoppers into Trafalgar St and surrounds can come down to some simple things, Mr Jackson says. For example, maintaining shop verandahs so they don't leak in the rain, so passers-by won't automatically flee to the warm, sheltered confines of an enclosed mall when the weather turns bad.

CITY TO SEA

Mr Jackson uses the large aerial photograph of Nelson on his office wall to make a point that might surprise even long-term Nelsonians: it's almost the same distance for him to wander from Civic House down to the marina in Akersten St for lunch as it is to go up to the Church Steps.

That so few people bother with the walk to the water's edge speaks volumes about the neglected, or at least unrealised, connections between the city, the Maitai River and the Haven.

Much of the problem, to the strategy group's mind, lies in the state of the walkway along the river edge from Trafalgar St to Queen Elizabeth II Drive. It is too narrow for pedestrians and cyclists to share, and it doesn't always feel safe, attracting drinkers and various shiftless sorts who may intimidate or threaten passers-by. The gloomy crossing point with QEII Drive, under the highway bridge, simply exacerbates things.

So, the walkway should be widened. But the idea quickly becomes more ambitious: developing the riverside edge of Rutherford Park (between the river and Paru Paru Rd) into a more attractive recreational area, where people might be attracted and troublemakers pushed out.

Ultimately, the city could see the revival of a long-standing notion, to extend Paru Paru Rd to Akersten St, to truly open the city centre up to the marina.

The cost would be high, with the project complicated by both the need to cross the state highway and the still-unresolved question of what direction the main highway into the city from the south will eventually take (whether along the waterfront or some revived route down the railway reserve and through Victory Square).

CARS, BIKES & FEET

Everybody who heads into town, whether for business or pleasure, becomes a pedestrian at some point, Mr Jackson reasons, and the "walkability" of the city centre was one of the most popular themes raised during the consultation. So the walking theme is a prominent one in the strategy.

Many of the suggested measures to improve things for pedestrians involve minor works like narrowing some of the wider road-crossings around the city; improving signs so people can find their way around, including to easily-overlooked attractions like the Queens Gardens; adding more paved "courtesy crossings", which act as de facto pedestrian crossings; and carrying out a study of footpaths across the city centre to find which are in a poor state or need verandahs to give weather protection.

A few guaranteed hot-button topics emerge, such as parking supply and the age-old debate over making Upper Trafalgar St pedestrian-only. Mr Jackson says the idea has been ruled out, certainly in the current "fragile" economic climate, but the strategy calls for a management plan for the area to give some clarity about when and why the street can be closed to cars.

FUTURE GROWTH

Some ambitious thinking is on display here. The notion of corralling particular types of businesses into defined areas sounds logical; only time will tell whether the council's planning tools are enough to achieve ideas such as transforming St Vincent St into a "gateway" strip of showrooms and trades shops from its current hotchpotch of derelict houses, workshops, retail barns and trade premises.

Then there is the strategy's vision for the old military barracks on Rutherford St being converted into a "small business incubator" including communal working spaces, and an "environmental clean production area" the length of Gloucester St for "small-scale environmentally friendly businesses in high-amenity settings within flexible, utilitarian premises".

Mr Jackson acknowledges the council can't make such precincts appear, but it can seek to convince developers and "create an environment where investors can look at it and see the pattern" and be confident enough to sign up.

The ideas have been informed by the work of Australian economic consultant Derek Kemp, who studied where the gaps appeared to be in the Nelson economy for more growth.

A pivotal area is what the council calls "the triangle", bounded by Rutherford, Vanguard and Hardy streets. It's another of the city centre's mish-mash areas, with various workshops and light-industrial activities, and not one of the nicer places to walk along. But Mr Jackson points out it is the logical place for the CBD to expand towards, and for linking the city centre to the big retail stores and supermarkets nearby.

Part of the problem is the difficult intersections here, such as the Haven-Vanguard-Rutherford one. Part of the solution the council sees is completing the long-awaited extension of Bridge St to Vanguard St, meaning clearing the buildings that sit in the way, but also using planning rules to encourage new, better-quality office and retail buildings in the area, with attractive street frontages.

Here, as in other parts of the central city fringe, requirements for developers to provide car parks will be eased, to avoid the often unattractive, pedestrian-unfriendly and uneconomic gaps in street frontages that car parks can cause.

- © Fairfax NZ News