There appears to be growing community concerns over the Greater Shepparton City Council’s preferred Option 4 of the Maude Street Mall redevelopment concept plan.
The concerns include those of the Beneath the Wisteria Group, who are generally focussed on environmental and planning issues, the Shepparton Chamber of Commerce, who generally looks after retail and commercial interests and most importantly, many community members.
The Chamber will take their concerns to council over forthcoming days.
Community concerns are centred around these issues:
[1] The exorbitant $20M that this proposed development will cost, whether it be partly funded by outside jurisdictions or not.
[2] The removal of all mature and shade trees and plantings, that provide shade, shelter and a lovely vista through the Hub, only to be replaced with new plantings that will take many years to mature.
[3] The lack of variety in the uses of the Hub as demonstrated in the concept plan, there is no discussion around food stores such as butcher, delicatessen, bakery, coffee shops, community infrastructure such as a library, retail council and community information shopfront, a proper community garden area of substance or a proper open community plaza.
[4] The many months of destruction and redevelopment of the precinct will disrupt retailers currently in the Hub and will deter any potential new retailers from commencing their business until all works are completed and the new development is assessed as successful or not.
[5] As much as the consultants have made statements as to the success of the redevelopment in terms of future retail trading, no one is able to guarantee that success.
Furthermore, the concept plan seems to be very ‘busy’ in terms of infrastructure, which will restrict the Winter and Summer markets.
A big consideration, of course, is the introduction of traffic and car parking in the precinct.
The plan calls for 53 car spaces and a 10kph speed limit with access from Fryers Street and exiting from Stewart Street, with the secondary car spaces entering and exiting from High Street. Both of these concepts will have problems in their implementation. The Chamber of Commerce, speaking on behalf of retailers want traffic and parking as part of their plan, whilst the community, in general, is not convinced that traffic movement and parking will be a safe inclusion to the existing pedestrian traffic.
Therefore, no matter what individual disagreements that the community at large will have as to the final look and feel of the precinct, Council should know that the published plan is objected to in principle and therefore should be rejected.
I understand that many years of discussion and debate has been a feature of the Maude Street Mall and that Council won’t satisfy everyone, however, could I suggest that we plan a program of community activation to bring more events, programs and sparkle to the precinct at a much less cost.
Finally, the key to this debate is the 350 space multi deck carpark. This was built and owned by a former council, sold by the council administrators in the council restructure period and is now not performing to its maximum. Council should acquire the site from the present owners and develop it as a major link in the CBD re development including retailer customer rewards of free parking and making the multi deck more customer focussed.
I understand this is a difficult development for Councillors to make a judgement on, therefore, we all owe it to our city to make our thoughts and comments known to them, whether you are in favour of the plan, or any amendments that you think are correct.
Geoff Dobson, Former Mayor of Greater Shepparton City Council
