Thursday 27 June 2013

Workshops planned for Draft Ferry Road Master Plan

Additional workshops will be organised with land and business owners, submitters who expressed interest in urban design issues in Woolston and Ferrymead and the Hagley/Ferrymead Community Board to give them an opportunity to provide additional feedback and ideas on the Draft Ferry Road Master Plan.

Christchurch City Council today supported the Hagley/Ferrymead Community Board's recommendation that while hearings will not be necessary, it would like to see Council staff hold additional workshops to consider and develop the feedback received from the public consultation on the Draft Master Plan.

Urban Design and Regeneration Unit Manger Carolyn Ingles says, "Overall, the Plan received a high level of community support. However, options and actions around urban design attracted quite a few submissions. The main focus of these submissions is around clarifying how the vision will be delivered and what the commercial centres and properties along Ferry Road could look like as a result of the actions in the Plan.

"These workshops will enable people to discuss aspects of the Plan in more depth. We are keen to help people visualise how the urban design principles, developed in the Plan, will help enhance and improve the commercial centres along Ferry Road - making them interesting, welcoming places to visit.

"More detail will be considered for inclusion in the final Master Plan in terms of how urban design can be used to reflect the history of the area and its unique environment. Other ideas that will be discussed include: the relationships of buildings with each other and the street, the scale and form of buildings and balancing the needs of vehicles, cycles and pedestrians. We need to make sure people have information about the rationale behind the development of these ideas as well as how they will impact on the look and feel of the commercial centres and the road corridor itself," she says.

Mayor Bob Parker says he is pleased that aspects of the Plan that attracted public feedback will be looked at with the people who made the submissions.

"It is important the Council works with the local business, land owners and the Hagley/Ferrymead Community Board to discuss their feedback and explain how their ideas and concerns were translated into actions and outcomes in the Plan. This will give people assurance that we have heard their feedback and have used this to develop a vision that will work for the community," he says.

The Plan was available for public comment from 28 January to 28 February 2013. It received 68 submissions with 23 of these submitters indicating they wanted to be heard if the opportunity was provided.

The Ferry Road Master Plan is Phase One of the Ferry Road / Main Road Master Plan. Master planning is underway for the development of the Main Road Master Plan (Phase Two of the Ferry Road / Main Road Master Plan). Focus group sessions, community workshops and 'inquiry by design'* workshops were held for Phase Two during May and June 2013. Council staff are now developing a draft Main Road Master Plan ahead of community consultation later in the year.

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*An 'inquiry by design' process is an intensive, collaborative workshop involving stakeholders, community representatives and technical experts. It aims to establish ideas, principles and plans for how future development may occur in a given area. The outcomes are typically non-binding and the design concepts are still subject to normal statutory planning processes.

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