Clarence Valley’s five town centre precincts, Grafton, South Grafton, Maclean, Iluka and Yamba are all undergoing redevelopments to support social capacity building, town pride and retail growth.
Director Engineering Services, David Andrews, said beautifying the town centres provides a psychological boost for residents.
“It is good for tourism and it is good for business,” he said. “The work that Council is doing has been based on a partnership approach and has encouraged businesses to renovate their own stores. This has had a snowball effect right along the retail strips in major centres.”
Through lengthy consultation with businesses, the community, the Chambers of Commerce, Heritage Committee and the Access Committee, works have commenced in all five centres, with Grafton closest to completion.
“Each town centre has a different theme or set of core design values that inform and drive the streetscape programs,” said David Andrews. “The emphasis in Maclean has been heritage. Town improvement funds of $100,000 per year since 2001 have been used to restore the main street to close to its original appearance in 1904. The results have been remarkable both in terms of business growth, town pride and importantly sense of place expression.
“Iluka and Yamba have a relaxed coastal theme, with landscaping and infrastructure design to compliment their beach front locations.”
David Andrews said reverting to underground power presented a key challenge. “In Grafton, the team from Country Energy and Council staff had to work after hours and at night to provide minimal disruption to residents and businesses,” he said. “Engineers were required to conduct lengthy pre planning so that workers could be in and out as quick as possible, thus creating the least disruption possible.”
Maintaining the individual identity of each town centre precinct is a core goal. It provides for a range of social, retail and visitor experiences and is developing as a strength for the Clarence Valley.
“The extensive consultation processes that underpin the streetscape programs have been the key to success,” said David Andrews. “Facilitating opportunities for the broader community as well as business owners to participate in significant decision making has been invaluable.”
