DCC Strategy To Breath New Life Into South Dunedin Retail Area

The Dunedin City Council is about to consult with the public on the future of the South Dunedin Retail Centre. The consultation will be the first step in the development of a strategy to revitalise the area.

The DCC has released an Issues and Opportunities consultation document, and is inviting feed-back from the community on the range and relative importance of the issues and options identified to date, as well as support for, and prioritisation of, options identified.

Chairman of the DCC’s Planning & Environment committee, Cr Michael Guest, is excited by the opportunities the strategy will offer to the South Dunedin community and the wider city. “I have vivid childhood memories of the special character of South Dunedin with its variety of shops and verandahs. This strategy, arrived at jointly by the Council and the community, is an initiative which is well over-due and which we sincerely hope will bring a new vitality to the area and go some way towards restoring that well-remembered South Dunedin ambience”.

The move has also received strong support from the local South Dunedin Business Association. President Jane Orbell says “We’re really pleased that most of the issues we raised through last year’s Community Plan process have been identified as ‘opportunities’ in the document. South Dunedin is changing – it’s becoming busier, and the time is certainly ripe for us to turn these visions into reality with the support of the Council and the wider Dunedin community. We are excited to be working with the DCC teams towards a long-hoped for positive future for the South Dunedin retail area as part of a stronger community for the benefit of all Dunedin residents.”

Steve Miles, DCC Principal Urban Designer, City Planning, says the Council feels the community has a leading role to play in any revitalisation, especially in those areas where the Council has limited influence.

The final strategy will propose a programme of physical improvement and community-focused projects to be delivered by the Council, in partnership with the South Dunedin community.

The Issues and Opportunities consultation document lays out perceived strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities on topics such as retail development, amenity and community development. It looks at under-used shops in the retail space and questions whether there are opportunities to develop businesses catering to the increasingly elderly population nearby.

The report notes the lack of open public spaces and wonders whether, if people were encouraged to spend more time in the area for meeting friends or other social activities, they would spend more money while there. Emphasising the quality of historic buildings in the area to enhance townscape and amenity values, and capitalising on the uniqueness of the nearby Gasworks Museum are among other suggestions.

Copies of the document will be circulated to community stakeholders and organisations and to owners and occupiers of buildings in the South Dunedin retail area. Copies of the document will be available from various South Dunedin outlets and on the www.dunedin.govt.nz website. Submissions on the proposals will close on 28 May 2010.