CBD Revitalisation Workshop moves ahead

The second CBD Revitalisation Workshop met at the Ōamaru Opera House on Thursday last week.

The programme, consisting of local businesses, organisations and Council working together on CBD projects, saw the different Strategic Doing groups consisting 35 people present their plans and discuss how they could be integrated further for a better CBD for the town.

Waitaki District Council’s Business Attraction Manager, Mel Jones says: “The Council is committed to revitalising Ōamaru CBD to ensure it is a thriving centre of our district that is attractive for residents, visitors and businesses. The approach we are taking is to engage a selection of businesses and other organisations in co-designing what changes we make. This is about community and council working together to design and deliver the future.”

Kelvin Cunningham discusses ideas and themes for the CBD (Photo Supplied)

Martin Horspool of Harbour Street’s BuggyRobot said: “It’s very exciting, it’s great to see what other people's ideas are. It’s great to see the focus on the historical and some of the unloved and underappreciated areas of the CBD”

David Wilson, trustee of Ōamaru Whitestone Civic Trust: “It's got great potential, this is such a fantastic town to work with and the ideas that have come out are going to build on and enhance a lot of the activity that’s been going on for a number of years”

Project teams are now working on refining their plans ahead of presenting them to the public in the future.