At a meeting with Harbour St businesses this week, the mayor, along with several Waitaki district councillors and council staff worked out a proposal to trial pedestrian-only access to the Victorian Precinct street at weekends.
Summertime seven-day-a-week pedestrian-only access for the street met resistance from Harbour St businesses after a plan was publicised by the council for a decision at a November 30 council meeting.
Mr Kircher said it was important to get potentially affected businesses involved before a decision for a part-time pedestrian-only plan came back to councillors.
"The councillors have the final say, but we wanted to make sure that we included the businesses to a significant degree along the way — that they feel that they have a chance for good input into what we end up with," Mr Kircher said.
"They’ve got reasonable investments riding on this and we want businesses to grow and to flourish. We don’t want to be doing things that cut across that. They are an important part that we want to get right."
The proposal for Harbour St was one of several before the council last month for the historic area of Oamaru and this week council roading manager Michael Voss said temporary speed limits of 30kmh in Humber, Itchen, Wansbeck and Tyne Sts near the historic area would be trialled, until Easter, to address "the growing number of tourists and visitors".
Speed restrictions, and parking changes were approved by councillors last month.
The Otago Daily Times canvassed six businesses on the street this week. Oasis Antiques owner Greg Waite, who started the petition against the proposal, said he still "utterly opposed" the pedestrian-only plans, but believed Mr Kircher had "already made his mind up".
Mr Waite said there were "many, many more" options for the council to consider to make the street "a thriving destination for all tourists".
"There’s been no research done specific to the Oamaru market," he said.
The pedestrian-only plans for Harbour St showed the council was "aiming at the bus market" in its plans, which was not the type of customer his store attracted.
"We’re not here for the people to kick our tyres," Mr Waite said. However, Presence on Harbour owner Dawn Brown, who signed Mr Waite’s petition, called the proposed trial both a "compromise" and a "starting point".
The weekend trial would coincide with her shop’s busiest day "people-wise" — Sunday — and she welcomed the trial.
"I think we’re getting there," she said.
"It’s never going to suit everybody."
The Grainstore Gallery’s Donna Demente, who has been a long-standing supporter of a pedestrian-only street said she would have preferred the council to "strike while the iron is hot" rather than trial a "watered-down version" of the closure.
She said to remove cars from the street would improve its aesthetics and add to the "mystique" of the area. Businesses that opposed the proposal would "adapt", she said.
Mr Kircher said the council would "make a decision for what we see as the ‘greater good" next year.
"Certainly, there will be one or two against it," he said.
"But we’re trying to do something that is good for the area. And if we tried to get unanimity on everything that we did, we would never get anything done."
