Thu 3 May 18
Community input takes Taumarunui revitalisation projects forward
Meetings this week will see further progress on advancing two major Taumarunui revitalisation projects.
The first (Wed 2 May 18) saw the community stakeholder working group involved with the redevelopment of north side of Hakiaha St between the old library site and the Railway Station meet with project consultants and Bespoke Landscape Architects.
The stakeholder working group comprises volunteers who are helping ensure that the final design will capture and reflect what is important to the community.
Project consultant Alastair Wells said the meeting was the first of three that will culminate in final detailed plans for the Hakiaha St revitalisation that Council can cost and include in their final Long Term Plan budget.
The contributions from the stakeholder working group were very good, said Mr Wells.
We were able to start the process of capturing the Taumarunui story including details on early Maori settlement, the history behind street names and other information that has helped to define Taumarunui.
The idea is that these historic details will help to inform a chronology from the past through to today that will be embedded in the streetscape design as you move down the street.
There are two more stakeholder working group meetings planned over the next two months with the next being in around three weeks.
At the next meeting we will be presenting some image examples from other townships who have been through a similar process to help give an example of how things could look.
On Thursday (3 May 18) we have organised for Rick Pearson from award winning architecture practice Pearson and Associates who specialize in exhibition design to talk with the Railway Museum Committee.
Mr Pearson has been involved in a number of township museum projects including Kaiapoi Museum and Kaikoura Museum and is shortly starting a project with Paeroa.
He will be able to talk to the Committee about his experience on these projects as well as other critical areas such as exhibition design, curation and fund raising.
Council Chief Executive Clive Manley added that as part of the longer term vision for Taumarunui revitalisation Council would shortly be starting to talk with Hakaiha St building owners about plans for the south side of the street.
There are quite a few decisions that building owners and Council need to work through including plans for renewing the verandahs covering the footpath and the impact of the Earthquake Prone Building legislation.
Council will be communicating with Hakiaha St building owners in the next little while on these issues, he said.
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