Wollongong City Council is due to adopt a new vision for the future of its city centre, allowing it to begin work on a series of projects to revitalise areas like the railway station, foreshore and MacCabe Park.
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Developed over the past three years, the “City for People” strategy is set to become the major policy document guiding changes in the CBD.
It sets out a series of short, medium and long term projects to enhance the city and also proposes six overall “urban life” projects focusing on the railway entrance, western Crown Street, the mall, MacCabe Park, lower Crown Street and the foreshore.
According to an implementation plan to be adopted along with the overall vision, some of the short term projects to be funded in the next financial year include art displays. events programs and a temporary kiosk for MacCabe Park.
The council will also develop a “quick win” to make the rail precinct more appealing and a master plan for the WIN Corporation-owned city block surrounded by Crown, Keira, Burelli and Atchison Streets.
In the longer term, the council will look at ways to enhance the visual connections from Crown Street to City Beach, and will begin lobbying the NSW government to upgrade the station precinct and improve the frequency of train services.
It will also look to improve the busy intersection of Gladston Avenue with Denison and Crown Streets to make it more pedestrian friendly, and develop a master plan to improve MacCabe Park.
The new policy has been developed with Gehl Architects, a Copenhagen firm which led Melbourne’s transformation from an inactive city in the mid-1990s to the “world’s most livable” city it is today.
The Gehl philosophy involves counting and measuring the movements of people around the city, so that urban planners can measure where people prefer to walk and stay.
Council staff reported “overwhelming” community support for the draft version of the plan, which was exhibited for 16 weeks over summer.
They received more than 1000 survey responses, 19 written submissions and 100 online comments from students, community groups, businesses, residents and visitors.
Councillors are due to vote to adopt the plan next week.