The latest plan to revamp State Highway 1 through central Oamaru has caught retailers and the Waitaki District Council by surprise, despite extensive consultation over the past five years since the project was first mooted.
Transit NZ, now the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA), carried out extensive consultation during the design phase until last November, o including shifting the Boer War monument at the Thames-Coquet-Severn Sts intersection.
The project, now out for tender which closes next month, is estimated to cost about $3 million and will involve major changes to improve traffic safety through central Oamaru on State Highway 1.
The work stretches from the Thames-Coquet-Severn Sts intersection to Ouse St, with five sets of co-ordinated traffic lights at intersections.
The changes will affect the appearance of Thames St, and includes the removal of 12 of the 44 trees.
Most of those affected have already been taken out.
Side streets will also be changed.
Lanes will be provided for traffic, thus reducing car parking.
But the biggest outcry over the latest plan is the loss of centre car parks in the Thames St central business area along SH1.
There are now 40 parks in the centre of Thames St between the Thames-Coquet-Eden Sts intersection and Dee St, at the northern end where the centre double rows of trees end.
The initial plan consulted on with the council and stakeholders envisaged reducing the number of parks in that section to 18.
The latest plan has only 10 car parks - a quarter of the existing parks.
The major loss is the parks between Eden and Ribble Sts, when the initial plan left six of the existing 16 parks.
Between Ribble and Dee Sts, there will be 10 centre parks.
The initial plan left 12 of the existing 18 parks.
Waitaki District Council assets committee chairman Alistair Mavor said yesterday the latest plans had been sent to the council, but no-one picked up that parks had been reduced further from the initial plan.
"We had had so many plans that we thought they were the same as the others and didn't pick up the changes," he said yesterday.
NZTA regional projects manager Simon Underwood said the changes were in a brochure sent out to affected parties in April.
That was followed by another in November detailing the timing of the project.
However, Mr Underwood said people may have overlooked the detail in the plans in the brochure.
The April brochure advised where large scale plans on public display could be seen, but Mr Underwood said those detailed a large number of features and it might have been difficult for people to pick up on the changes, including further loss of parking.
NZTA acting regional manager Bruce Richards said the feedback from Thursday night's meeting would now be considered and decisions made.
That decision would be conveyed as a recommendation to the council and then retailers would be notified.
He did not want to comment on whether any changes would be made.
But he added: "There are genuine concerns."
Mr Richards expected to have a decision in about two weeks.
The loss of the centre parking comes because of concerns about safety, together with right-turn lanes at the traffic lights.
Vehicles abruptly turned into the centre parks, risking rear-end collisions and sudden lane-change crashes.
Both of these figured strongly in recorded crashes on that stretch of SH1.
The view of drivers in vehicles leaving the centre parks was impaired by trees or an adjacent vehicle.
People returning to those vehicles often crossed the street instead of using pedestrian facilities.
Mr Richards said Gore and Invercargill were examples of where central parking had been replaced with street planting.
"This has been to the betterment of those communities from both safety and social perspectives," he said.
