Dunedin city councillors had signed off plans to make George St one-way, but that might all change next week, after an urban designer reviewed plans and recommended a different option.
Consultant urban designer Kobus Mentz recommends, in a 21-page report to be discussed by the council’s planning and environment committee on Tuesday, two options for the retail street’s design.
Choose either a two-way street design with an environmentally-friendly public transport service, or a one-way street without public transport, as initially envisaged, or a one-way street that should be designed so it could be converted to a two-way street in future if an appropriate public transport service became available.
Mr Mentz's review followed meetings with the council’s advisory group in August and October with a survey of interested parties.
He reported the advisory group valued a flexible design, the ability for traffic to move through the area, developing a quality public space where plantings and seating was available, extending the scope of the project into the Octagon, including an option for an electric bus service, and providing short-stay on-street parking.
The review recommends a provision of 45, largely P20 and P30, car parks in the upgrade which would be revisited as design work progresses.
The review also suggested better access to nearby public parking.
There was wide support for upgrading George St.
There was also wide support for a design that improved accessibility for pedestrians and the ability for road users to share the street, Mr Mentz said.
If councillors give the go ahead for work on a detailed business case and design for a two-way street, work would begin early next year, a staff report to the committee said.
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The problem is this council has no credibility. The mayor and his sidekicks have no idea of the cost of borrowing and the transportation department make an absolute hash of every project they touch (except the harbour cycleway). Ratepayer have no trust and nor should they based on past performance.
Well, they could do nothing, change nothing. Nobody would bag them them, surely.
That would be the safer bet. Change nothing, until at least the basic fundamental infrastructure is up to purpose. However, even then, past DCC performance standards repeatedly illustrate a clear and persistent lack of accountability, nor organisational professionalism. Time and time again, residents bare witness to expensive mismanagement. It's as if the ratepayers of Dunedin have been subjected to an experiment. What will the general public actually tolerate before a city goes into decline? Broken roads, failing power poles, rough footpaths, refuse/recycling a shambles, failing drainage, multi million dollar empty cycleways, a disjointed public transport system, ridiculous rush hour congestion, not a single policeman walking the beat, and a childish fractured council headed by a childlike mayor sitting on his hands trying to look important, while the beaches erode through lack of comittment. A city that is arguably THE very best in NZ, doesn't know what to do with itself or how to move forward. Mismanaged growing pains, ignored infrastructure. As the costs continue to mount........for now and into the future, for everyone. What a mess, what a waste of profound opportuniy........
Thanks a fair point, but hardly a reasoned reply. Yes we want growth and an evolution, but it shouldn't be absolute hash jobs like the transportation section of council are continuly offering ratepayers. The upper management have floated to the surface- and are simply not credible
We must be careful about the word "growth". When councils use it, associated with extra rates demand to fund it, we need to sharpen up our critical faculties more than usual. Tomatoes grow bigger and better after some fertilizer is added - that's good. Your dog (or yourself) develops a growth - off to an appropriate health professional asap, it probably needs to be removed, just like the badly designed street tumours that interfere with the point of having a street at all.