The old Trade Aid shop on Thames St is the latest addition to the Waitaki District Council’s Revitalise our Place Oamaru programme.
It has been converted into the Ō Hub and will be a space where the community can share their thoughts on developing Oamaru’s CBD.
The Oamaru CBD Masterplan is a combination of various long-term plans and will set the direction for growth over the next 30 years.
It was a chance to incorporate new developments into thinking about the future of the town, business attraction and recovery manager Mel Jones said.
"Over the last few years, we’ve had a whole number of different strategies and plans developed, but there’s also new things that are happening, like the Forrester Gallery — we’ve had six and a-half million dollars from the government to actually build an extension — that isn’t captured in any of the current plans.
"Let’s make sure we’re factoring in the new stuff and let’s think long-term about how do we want to revitalise and rejuvenate the CBD."
Connecting the town better was a key goal in mind, she said.
"At the moment, Thames St, the Harbour Precinct, the harbour area, the heritage precinct, they’re all quite separate. So how do we get more of a flow?"
After holding three CBD revitalisation workshops since last December, council had several concept ideas.
Members of the public can now visit O Hub to see what they have planned and where they can give feedback on the ideas.
Concept ideas are hung on the wall and people can place either a green smiley face, a yellow neutral face or a red sad face sticker on them to indicate how they feel about them.
The space will be open until next Friday.
Council hopes to adopt the Oamaru CBD Masterplan in September.
