Orange City Council has revealed the next stage of its Future City upgrade of the city’s CBD.
The plan to transform a section of Lords Place, between Summer and Kite Streets is now on public exhibition.
The project will include plantings of advanced trees, traffic changes to transform the area into a pedestrian-friendly precinct, installation of outdoor dining zones, improved street lighting and new street furniture.
Mayor, Jason Hamling said it was a challenging project to get the balance right between the city evolving while supporting existing businesses.
“We want the community to tell us what they think so we can start to explore what it would be like to enjoy outdoor dining areas in a pedestrian-friendly street,” Mayor Hamling said.
Earlier this year, the Lords Place South project was awarded a grant of $500,000 from the NSW Government’s ‘Streets as Shared Spaces’ program.
“The beauty of this government grant is that it’s intentionally designed to trial changes,” Mayor Hamling said.
“The government wants communities to test the idea of creating spaces where the focus has switched from cars to people. A place where people park somewhere else and then spend time in attractive, fun spaces. If these ideas work, that will shape the design of future changes to revitalise the heart of our city.
“There are potentially huge benefits in creating an ‘eat street’ in the heart of our city that will work all year round and boost our night-time economy. If we want to make our CBD an attractive place to meet, this is great start.
“But there will be changes to the routines we’re used to. We want to hear from the community how they weigh up benefits of creating this new destination, alongside impacts such as the loss of some parking spaces,” he said.
The Council has started visiting business operators and property owners along the block, to spell out details of the plans and seek their feed-back, Council said in a statement.
Last night’s Council meeting decided to put the concept plan on exhibition for community comment for 21 days. A community forum is also planned for Wednesday 20 September.
There are currently 603 parking opportunities across a 9-hour day in Lords Place between Kite and Summer Street. Under the proposed changes to introduce short stay parking of half an hour for angle parking and 15 minutes for parallel parking, there will be 792 parking opportunities across a 9-hour day in the Lords Place between Summer and Kite.
The draft plans can be viewed on the Your Say Orange site.
