Reshaping Whanganui - our town centre project

Published on 23 October 2015

23 October 2015

Mayor Annette Main says an exciting project is under way to reshape Whanganui’s town centre and make it a more vibrant place to be.

Following Wanganui District Council’s agreement in July to embark on a major town centre regeneration project the Council has appointed Urbanism+, one of Australasia’s top urban design and planning practices, to take the lead.

This project will provide the vision and direction to reshape our town centre and provide the framework for key catalyst projects such as the Sarjeant redevelopment project, creating a community hub and library on Victoria Avenue, creating a transport hub, developing the waterfront, lifting the vitality of Victoria Avenue and its adjoining blocks to deliver prosperity for the future.

Whilst the delivery of key projects will be an important part of the regeneration strategy, Jonathan Barrett, the Council’s Principal Planner, commented that “this process is not about big spending on large projects. It is about working in collaboration with the community to understand the day-to-day challenges and where we can lead change to make a difference to people’s everyday lives”.

“This project builds on the fantastic work done on the town centre through the Mainstreet project but goes much further towards addressing the social, environmental and economic issues which we share with a large part of provincial New Zealand,” Mayor Annette Main said. “We will tackle these issues in a determined and focussed partnership with businesses, tangata whenua and all sectors of our community.”

The project kicked off this week with a series of stakeholder meetings with businesses, retailers, landowners, community groups, public agencies and arts representatives. The consultation phase will include open public meetings which will be held in November and December and will lead to a draft regeneration plan for the town centre by the end of April. The strategy will provide the Council and the Whanganui community with a clear direction for its spending and development programmes for the next 20 or 30 years.