13 April 2018

Media: Bay of Plenty Business News

Topic: Inner city revitalisation

Enquiry

A reporter had spoken to Rotorua Chamber of Commerce regarding their submission to Council's long-term plan and sought information regarding inner city revitalisation ie what had been done, what was still coming up, future vision/plans

Response

The following information was provided:

Revitalising the inner city was highlighted as a priority by Rotorua people and a lot has changed during the past few years.

See HERE for 2015 version of the inner city strategy and Council has worked alongside inner city retailers who provided input and helped plan some of the changes and have been the champions of the change that has occurred.

CBD changes/projects/activities which have all contributed to inner city revitalisation to date (not in chronological order):

• Eat Streat outdoor eating precinct at lake end of Tutanekai Street
• Opened up and revamped intersections all the way down Tutanekai Street
• Created new, open shared zone Te Manawa (replacing the former City Focus) which has opened up sightlines down Tutanekai Street creating better connection down the "spine" of the inner city (Tutanekai Street)
• Art in the CBD: sculptures at intersections, murals in alleyways
• Created a new family-friendly park between back of upgraded iSite and front of upgraded library building by extending existing Jean Batten Square (now includes a playground, open grassed area and paths)
• Inner city markets: Council operates the weekly Thursday Night Market (mainly food) and since October 2016 Sunday Farmers Market (home grown/home made produce and food, organics etc) with a weekly Saturday market run by local Rotary club at Kuirau Park (one of the city's geothermal parks) on outskirts of the CBD + regular privately run weekend craft market at the lakefront
• Safety improvements have included: increasing CCTV coverage in the CBD, lighting of all council-owned verandahs and encouraging other building owners to do the same, changes to seating, lighting alleyways
• Council worked with Ministry of Justice to improve entrance to the city courthouse
• Kuirau Park improvements have included new foot pools, increasing market space for Rotary market, generally opening up the park

Future:

Big Moves projects proposed in Council's draft 2018-28 Long-term Plan (consultation closing today - see HERE for more) include further upgrades to Kuirau Park and redevelopment of our lakefront to lift the wider inner city to the next level and in the case of the lakefront provide a world-class waterfront experience. The LTP will be adopted at the end of June with year 1 being the 2018/19 financial year.

Council is developing a district spatial plan (consulted on last year and also to be adopted late June) which you'll find HERE and which (see page 14 re 'objective 5 - Create a vibrant city heart) also includes further future plans/vision for the CBD.

Also, Amohau Street (which runs between Rotorua Central mall/big box retail area and the start of Tutanekai Street) is earmarked for work that will better connect that retail area to the rest of the CBD and will be more people friendly. That will be done with NZTA as the status of that road is changing from state highway to local road.

A few additional facts that may be of interest:

• 2017 CBD vacancy survey which Telfer Young does every year showed that in December 2017 there were 54 vacant shops in the CBD, down from 65 in 2016 and 82 in 2015 (the lowest retail vacancy rates since 2010, representing an occupancy rate of 89.3%)
• Rotorua GDP rose 4% in 2017 vs 2.8% nationally (from latest Infometrics report - for December quarter)
• Retail spending rose 5.2% in Rotorua vs 4.3% nationally (latest Infometrics)

CBD revitalisation strategy was an LGNZ award finalist in 2015: http://www.rotorualakescouncil.nz/our-council/news/Pages/default.aspx?newsItem=6446