Councillors, traders concerned about parking, refurbishment works to take years
It will take years before Midtown’s makeover will be fully realised – or complete – but traders and councillors alike are still worried about on-street parking. LATEST >>
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- Uber delivery drivers slammed as ‘lazy’ by Hobart City councillor
- North Hobart parking pains discussed at public meeting
A STREET makeover years in the making which won’t be built for years to come has frayed tempers during a Hobart City Council meeting.
On Monday night council approved a draft concept design for the Elizabeth St Midtown retail precinct, which covers three blocks from Melville St to Warwick St.
Suggested works include an uphill bicycle lane, more outdoor dining space, more seating and public art.
Council’s decision at Monday’s meeting meant the plan was “generally endorsed as a framework”, with the agenda noting council did not currently have the money to implement the changes
The plan followed a two year engagement process, in which 71 per cent of the 183 stakeholders surveyed were supportive of the overall concept design.
However some traders have raised concerns about a loss of parking in the area.
Metro Tasmania says the changes will further slow down bus services.
Councillor Bill Harvey said there was ample unused space in the nearby Melville St car park to make up for a loss of on-street parks.
“This has been a very thorough engagement process over a long period of time. We can confidently say most people in the precinct and the area support what we are proposing,” he said.
Alderman Simon Behrakis said a decision should be deferred to see if compromises could be found over issues including parking.
“While it’s all wonderful to have the village vibe, it is a major arterial road that goes in and out of the CBD,” he said.
Deputy Lord Mayor Helen Burnet said council should not “sit on its hands” over the thoroughly consulted project.
Alderman Marti Zucco questioned the merits of an uphill bike lane on Elizabeth St.
“How that benefits the traders of Midtown is beyond my comprehension,” he said.
During the debate Cr Burnet asked Ald Zucco to “bring the volume down a bit”.
Councillor Zelinda Sherlock likened theatrics during the debate to watching monkeys at a zoo.
Her comment enraged Ald Zucco who labelled it “appalling”.
Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds said she was disappointed by the debate.
Councillor Reynolds said booming residential and hotel development meant council needed to do something to accommodate the increasing number of people on foot in Midtown.
Council will seek another report on the Midtown overhaul next year.
Also at Monday night’s meeting council approved a series of questions to be sent to North Hobart traders and residents as part of a precinct plan for the area.
Midtown traders welcome CBD streetscape development – but Simon Bevilacqua disagrees
Words by Simon Bevilacqua
IS Hobart being poisoned by toxic green ideology?
Failed city council candidate Louise Bloomfield, an accountant by trade, reckons it is and lists a litany of issues about Hobart City Council in a strident and provocative Talking Point.
And, to be frank, I agree with most of her concerns.
Parking in Hobart is an absolute pain in the butt that I dread every time I go near the CBD or the waterfront.
The exorbitant cost, the shite parking meters that can’t be read in the glare of the sun, the lack of carparks, the militant attendants, the multistorey carpark gridlock, the speed limit confusion, and baffling regulations about when and where you can stop your vehicle, combine to make any trip into the city a nightmare.
The continual reworking, redirecting, re-curbing and resurfacing of streets around the docks and the Salamanca precinct adds to the irritation.
The inevitable result of all these traffic realignments is to make city life less enjoyable.
As a motorist who lives within commuter distance of Hobart, I find it vastly more challenging, if not impossible, to be part of the city scene.
This situation is the antithesis of the notion of cities proposed and designed by Aristotle and the great thinkers of Ancient Greece, who put the functionality of a city at the heart of a citizen’s ability to attain a healthy life and a sense of wellbeing.
The city and waterfront are OK if you live in Battery Point or West Hobart, and you’re fit and capable of riding a bike or walking kilometres at a time, but if you commute, or you’re elderly, or disabled, or obese, or lack the inclination to commit to the drama of breaching the CBD, then you’re not a part of this city’s fabric, you’re an outsider.
If what has transpired in Salamanca and the docks in the past few years is rolled out to the mid-city and North Hobart business zones it will be a disaster, and in such an event I am unswervingly on the side of the small business owners who put their money on the line to make a go of it.
Continual calls for more grass, more trees, more open spaces and green corridors appear to fall on deaf ears.
Where do most people stop to sit in Hobart if not in a cafe, pub or restaurant?
Parliament Lawns or the strip of greenery between Salamanca and the docks. We want shade, grass, birds and comfortable seats.
The city is increasingly concrete, concrete and more concrete. The beautiful Hobart that took my breath away when I visited as a schoolboy is being destroyed.
Word on the street is that all the annoying changes to parking and street design in the past few years are not the result of incompetence or mistakes but are a conscious result of a green ideology in the HCC to make driving a car in Hobart more difficult.
The rumour is the HCC is trying to push motorists into public transport and to encourage the use of bicycles. Word is that the HCC is wilfully making it more difficult to be a motorist.
If this is true, please HCC, come out and say so, because I will join Louise Bloomfield in fighting such stupidity every inch of the way.
SEE BELOW FOR LOUISE’S COLUMN >>
Cars are unheralded champions of liberty in the 20th and 21st centuries. They are icons of freedom; enablers of freedom of movement and of colossal social change. They forced the reinvention of post-industrial families, social structures and workplaces. The extent of their impact on the psyche of the modern age is unfathomable — too immense and ubiquitous to comprehend.
It is safe to assume there will long be a market for these icons of liberty. Of course, drivetrains, fuel and mechanics may change dramatically, but anyone who tries to force the freedom of the automobile, like a genie, back in the bottle is kidding themselves.
There are undeniable benefits from growing public transport and encouraging people onto bikes, but this should be done by making such transport more attractive.
More carrot and no stick.
Let’s embrace cars that don’t pollute. In Tasmania, if we make the right decisions on energy policy, we could have electric cars statewide using power generated by renewable energy, and producing no greenhouse emissions at all.
And free parking.
The juxtaposition of Louise Bloomfield’s attack on what she regards as a toxic green ideology and former Greens leader Christine Milne’s plea on behalf of the environment in today’s Talking Point opinion pages has a volatile pertinence in all this.
I agree with most of what both writers have to say, but rather than accepting the clearly conflicting aspects of their articles as a dichotomy, I see their views more as two sides of the same coin.
The extremes of both sides of this coin will, at this point, scream “heresy” because they gain their power by fuelling division and maintaining the Great Divide. Our political system demands the chasm be wide. That’s the reason for the constant demonisation in this ideological wrestling bout.
I suspect most of us, however, are wise enough to recognise the real world is more complex and requires more sophisticated and nuanced thinking and solutions.
I first met Milne when she was a shy young teacher in the late 1980s speaking out against the Wesley Vale pulp mill that would have pumped dioxins into Bass Strait near Latrobe on the North-West Coast. Her initial passion came from defending her family farm but, four decades on, she enjoys a stellar career as an environmentalist on a global stage. We need her wisdom.
Many Tasmanians, I imagine, agree with Milne’s general thesis while, at the same time, identifying with Bloomfield’s justifiable angst.
Imagine if we could get the plucky fight of the likes of Bloomfield to work alongside the wise counsel of Milne to chart an environmentally conscious, post-pandemic economic recovery led by small Tasmanian businesses.
Oh to dream.
Council snatches away ‘vital’ car parks
James Kitto
AN “UNDER-UTILISED” CBD carpark is being rebranded to allay fears a redevelopment will slash the number of public vehicle spaces on a popular strip.
Hobart City Council’s infrastructure committee this week endorsed a report on stakeholder engagement for the Elizabeth St streetscape concept design, commonly referred to as Midtown.
In a scathing opinion piece in Saturday’s Mercury, Hobart accountant Louise Bloomfield said the Midtown Strategic Plan would “create a toxic environment that small business owners expect will cause massive downturns or force closures”.
She wrote that the “HCC is determined to push the destructive plan with minimal input from small businesses most affected”.
>> READ HER FULL OPINION PIECE BELOW
But some business owners hit back at those remarks, saying the development’s “consultation process had been across a two-year period”.
Sue Stagg, owner of Elizabeth St’s Stagg coffee shop, while acknowledging the loss of on-street parking outside her store, said she “wholeheartedly welcomed” the development.
“I see the proposed street upgrade as the next stage of Midtown’s growth and welcome the opportunities it is likely to bring to my business and my customers,” she said.
“The area will become a destination where people will not only come to buy a coffee but also to shop and to visit all the other businesses in the strip.”
Katinka Dineen, owner of nearby business Lily and Dot, said she and other Midtown business managers had put extensive time and effort into assessing whether the development was right for the area.
“The consultation process was extensive to say the least, with professional external facilitators used,” she said.
“At various workshops, held at a variety of times and days of the week, participants could voice their ideas and concerns, listen and respond to those of their neighbours, hear from a cross-section of stakeholder groups, and learn from experts.
“The proposed plan aligns with best-practice urban design and is something of which our capital city can be justifiably proud.”
Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds said HCC wanted to create a city that was a great place to visit, saying “fast-moving streets full of cars and trucks with narrow footpaths are not the kind of streets where people want to linger, spend time and spend money”.
She said the council-operated 100-space “under-utilised” Melville St carpark will be renamed the Midtown Carpark.
“This will more clearly align it with the precinct and its availability to serve nearby businesses,” she said.
“We’ve worked directly with certain businesses, such as the CWA shop, to find solutions that will support their ongoing trade.
“In the draft plan, parking spaces have been retained in key locations without impacting on the overall amenity.”
Toxic ideology is killing our community and destroying business
By Louise Bloomfield
GREEN ideology, the driving force behind Hobart City Council, purports to embrace inclusion and diversity, but the council’s actions have done anything but.
COVID-19 has created a desolate landscape for small business owners. It’s an area that desperately needs help.
The Mid Town Strategic Plan will do the opposite. It will create a toxic environment that small business owners expect will cause massive downturns or force closures.
Some are considering moving from the area already.
This is not news to council. They heard the concerns and ignored them.
This is the sector with the highest employment and it is concerning to see council treat it with such callous disregard.
HCC is determined to push this destructive plan with minimal input from small businesses most affected.
Access to parking and good traffic flow is essential to the community. With so little investment in public transport, it can mean the difference between getting and keeping a job or staying on the dole.
It can limit the clients a contractor is able to take on. It can even determine which sports and after-school activities families allow their children to participate in.
Every reduction in speed limit and carpark numbers impacts equitable access for the community.
This plan will see a big proportion of valuable car parks along Elizabeth St turned into a bike lane and a few dining decks for a lucky few cafes.
This beggars belief. This is the main artery that feeds this struggling business district. The many elderly people who frequent the CWA and the sewing machine shop nearby say they are concerned about how they will access the area if carparks are removed.
Southern Tasmania has not enjoyed investment in public transport required for the council to consider alternatives at the expense of parking and use of cars. It’s that simple.
To justify this extreme and inequitable plan, HCC released a survey and encouraged the public to take part. The survey gave little to no way of communicating diversity of thought regarding the parking needs of small business, so I conducted my own survey.
The response was similar to the numbers the HCC obtained. In the space of a couple of months they received about 168 responses, and within two weeks we have more than 140 responses. The results are illuminating.
We found that just 62 per cent were aware of the Mid Town Project at all. It’s also interesting to note that any business on a side street within a stone’s throw of Elizabeth St was not considered to have interest in this project.
Only 1 per cent of respondents use a bike to get around Hobart, while 75 per cent felt parking was inadequate and 32 per cent actually drive away unable find a park at all — 60 per cent asked for more parking to be available, and 18 per cent for more access to public transport. Only 22 per cent would even use the proposed outdoor dining if it was available.
One in 10 people said the project would be fabulous, while 68 per cent pointed out that dining next to traffic was unpleasant. Safety and inclement weather were a concern for 85 per cent — 55 per cent asked why it was always cafes and restaurants getting HCC funding.
Disabled access and less parking were a concern for 50 per cent and 62 per cent, respectively. All things considered, 90 per cent of respondents found an issue with this project.
These concerns are not new to HCC. Even in the HCC report on the plan were comments from small business owners pointing out the detrimental effects of slowing traffic and removing parking. One business owner pleaded with council not to go ahead with the plan because their gross income could be hit by as much as 50 per cent. These pleas were ignored.
Through the prism of HCC’s green ideology, small business, employees and customers are second-class citizens.
The Mid Town Business District will suffer under this plan. People who live, work and visit this area don’t want carparking converted to public space.
This destructive ideology needs to be abandoned before Hobart’s small business goes the way of the thylacine.
Louise Bloomfield is principal accountant at Hobart tax agents accountants and bookkeepers, Bloomfield & Associates. She stood unsuccessfully as a candidate at the last Hobart council elections.
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