The Dunedin City Council says more public consultation is needed on a plan to make street layout changes easier.
It comes in the council’s submission to Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency on the proposed Reshaping Streets legislation.
Proposed Government legislation would make it easier for councils to trial alterations to street layouts, such as changing speed limits, pedestrianisation, parking and other changes.
There has been opposition to the legislation as trials could be implemented for up to two years without pre-consultation.
One of the first points in the council submission, approved yesterday, was that strong and meaningful engagement needed to be required under the legislation before any trials were implemented.
Council transport group manager Jeanine Benson said the proposed legislation would not allow consecutive trials, and ongoing consultation would indicate before the two-year period was up if changes were not working.
The council had previously run trials, such as a pedestrianisation of the Octagon and surrounding areas and safety changes around a Mosgiel school, which included adjusting reduced speed limits, adding reduced speed zones and crossing changes.
Both trials were in 2020 and proved unpopular.
"Some of the lessons learned especially with the Mosgiel schools project were it needed very heavy engagement up front and particularly explaining the why," Ms Benson said.
She said this was why, throughout the submission, the council had asked for more consultation with the public, and pre-engagement as a focus before undergoing changes.
Cr Jim O’Malley said two-year trials would be the upper limit to any changes, and doubted any unwelcome trials would continue that long.
"It doesn’t mean that we can close down things for two years and do what we want with no public consultation," he said.
He said the key point was the flexibility to enact traffic changes without rigid process.
Cr Jules Radich said he was concerned the proposals were around removing things, as opposed to adding them, and the lack of engagement was a worry.
"It’s really all about reducing speeds, restricting vehicles, removing parking, and really constricting the use of vehicles."
He said strong and meaningful engagement had not been the case for the council.
