At a meeting on Wednesday, councillors will consider the approval of $60,000 to fund its Historic Precinct Concept 2016 plan, which in its current form would introduce a speed limit of 30kmh at the Humber St, Itchen St, Wansbeck St and Tyne St approaches and time-restricted parking and new parking areas; build a raised pedestrian platform in Tyne St; add road markings to the service lane behind the precinct; and install bollards to restrict vehicle access to Harbour St.
Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher said with more tourists and vehicle traffic in the area than ever before, something needed to be done to lessen congestion and keep pedestrians safe.
"I’m not going to stand by and do nothing when there’s been an increase in conflict between pedestrians and vehicles. We can’t turn a blind eye to it. Equally, I’m determined to make sure businesses are impacted to the least possible degree."
However, many Harbour St business owners believe it will harm their business, while others have criticised the council for a lack of formal consultation.
Oasis Antiques, Unique Carving Studio, Lavish Soap, Harbour St Collective, Deja Moo, Harbour St Bakery, Presence on Harbour, Adventure Books, The Glass Room, Easy Made and Catto Wools and Tully House Linen have all signed the petition, as have Fastway Couriers and Tyne St’s Jens Nic Nacs.
Oasis Antiques owner Greg Waite, who organised the petition, said 10 of the businesses were "utterly against closure", while those that had issues with the consultation process were Adventure Books and Presence on Harbour.
The petition proposed four "alternative traffic-calming measures".
They were the sealing of the car park at the corner of lower Wansbeck St and Tyne St, restricting parking to one side of Harbour St, a parking time limit of 30 minutes in Harbour St, Tyne St and lower Wansbeck St and a speed limit of 15kmh in Harbour St.
Mr Waite threatened to relocate his business if Harbour St was closed.
"I’m genuine in my belief that not having the ability to access our customers in cars will remove a huge chunk of our business to the point it won’t be viable to operate here. We’ll be moving."
Bruce Blackie, of the Harbour St Collective, said traffic restrictions would be "devastating for our business".
In an email to councillors and Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher, Mr Waite said Mr Kircher believed he "has a total mandate from businesses in the street regarding closure", which Mr Waite said was "not true".
Mr Kircher admitted he had not spoken to every business owner, but rejected Mr Waite’s claim that he said all the businesses were behind the proposal.
"I still haven’t seen everybody and I haven’t claimed to have a universal agreement. There was some agreement from everyone, including Greg Waite and the Harbour St Collective, at the time. I’m more than happy to continue discussions."
Mr Waite said the group was happy to work with the council on the issue.
"Working with council on this, we feel, is much preferable to undoing a bad decision later, which has the added implication of loss of business in the meantime. We do not agree that we have a looming health and safety issue. There is ample evidence of the new stream of thought on combining traffic & pedestrians in public places with closure being seen a a very outmoded model. All businesses in the street are happy to work with council if a trial period of alternatives was constructive to a beneficial outcome."
If the project does go ahead, work would begin in early 2017.
- Daniel Birchfield
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Comments
I just went on Google Earth, zoomed in on Harbour Street and measured it against the distance scale at the bottom of the screen. Not counting the short part past the Criterion, the street is 140 metres long.
The business owners who are going faint in the head over the traffic ban proposal clearly think that, rather than walk 140 metres, or less, the only way customers are going to want to get to their shops is to drive there and park outside.
That's about one-and-half, perhaps two, car parks per business.
That's a lot of business to lose if the street becomes pedestrian-only.