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Redesigning Richmond

05/09/2016

View of Northern Richmond entrance

Current Mayor Richard Kempthorne is patting himself on the back on meeting the housing accord agreement terms signed with the Government.  His consortium of developers in the “development forum” have managed to assist the supply of a total of 228 sections and 394 building consents in the region.

Kempthorne said a development forum had been established involving the council and developers. While it might be “tested at times”, it was working well. Post-election, Kempthorne said he would be asking “how can we take this forward and enable intensive development – going up not out as much”

It may be working well for the development consortium but individuals trying to build a house are still waiting up to nine months for consent to be processed by the council.  However, consents aside, this push for large-scale urban development  is not being backed up with large-scale vision of essential services.

The Northern entrance to Richmond is about to see the addition of a fuel station and proposed supermarket at the Champion Road and  Salisbury Rd intersection.  The site of the fuel station was zoned for tourist services which specifically excludes fuel stations, but Tasman District Council resource consents manager Phil Doole made the difficult decision to allow consent to be granted without public notification anyway.

Equally enigmatic is the process by which the application by Progressive Enterprises Ltd to rezone of about 1.3 hectares of land on the corner of Salisbury and Champion roads from residential to commercial is being handled. As a frustrated Cr Judene Edgar pointed out that the current members of the council, who by in large all campaigned on a platform of spending reduction, have farmed out the decision making to expensive experts meeting in Auckland.

Not only have council relinquished control of development in Tasman, at great expense, they are allowing these experts to make decisions without any public consultation.  By the time the public is informed the process of consent is that far down the track that it is already a case of a rubber-stamping formality.

I am sure those who travel this road regularly at rush hour will be excited at the prospect of two more significant additional sources of traffic fighting for access to the current roundabout woes.  Then, of course, there is the issue of parking.  Will this development cater to the parking requirements of the staff? Or will staff be forced to park on an already too narrow Champion road adding to the almost unpassable congestion near Garin college? The current form of this council would suggest developers only have to cater to customer parking.

If this is the “right track” for the development of Tasman, perhaps it is about time we starting asking where exactly the track is taking us? And who is steering us down it?

 

 

Filed Under: Projects, Your Say Tagged With: consent, development, housing, planning, Richmond, tdc

Richmond Parking Woes

16/08/2016

picture of extreme parking
Finding a park in Richmond – no problem

Free parking was one of the great selling points as to why a person should shop in Richmond and not in Nelson.  The parking is still free – if you can find a park. Unless you overstay in your park, and then you will pay for the privilege.

Why would anyone overstay when the parking is free?  Probably because if you move you will find yourself driving for miles to find another park if you dare move.  Has Richmond become a victim of its own advertising success?  Or has our small town gone and got all grown up?

One of the questions I would like to ask is how big businesses in central Richmond (and one obvious one in particular) was allowed to expand to such a size without providing adequate parking?

I am sure there were a number of studies done by very intelligent people as to how many parks should be provided based on customer projections etc. For the most part, there is usually park to be found for customers, even if it is in no-mans land midway between the shopping complexes.

However, given that these complexes are the major employers in Richmond, I am left wondering how they were not required to provide adequate parking for the staff that would inevitably end up employed there.  It would seem from an obviously not educated enough perspective that the main cause of the Richmond parking woes is directly related to this issue.

Should residents of nearby streets have to suffer constantly clogged streets because someone did not stipulate that the big business owners should have to provide adequate staff parking?  Streets that were designed for horse and carts, or limited traffic flow at the best, are now barely navigatable because both sides of the road are clogged with commuter traffic.

If you need to make a pitstop at a bank or other service and you happen to be driving a truck and trailer – park in Hope and get a taxi back into town!

What is the next step to providing a solution? Yellow lines down one side of the street? Ratepayer funded road widening? Paid parking facilities for workers so the shoppers can shop for free?

At what point do we start to question why a mandatory parking building wasn’t stipulated as part of the consent process?

extreme parking Richmond
Council considers parking options for Richmond

But, what more can we expect from a council that has, as Cherie Sivignon reports, “a shortage of car parks at Tasman District Council’s Richmond office [resulting] in a bill of more than $200,000.”

It appears that TDC are responsible for providing staff car parking facilities, and yet other businesses are not?

Eventually, the current model is going to produce the same results that we have in central Nelson proving that the only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history. Central Richmond will become a ghost town as commerce moves to the outskirts of town, such as lower Queen Street or the Saxton area when rival malls are opened.

Am I wrong?  What do you say?

Filed Under: History, Spending, Your Say Tagged With: free parking, parking, parking tickets, Richmond

Introducing Dean

Dean McNamara Husband, father, and a fourth generation local from rural Tasman. Now acting as your voice on the Tasman District Council (TDC). More about me.

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