Timaru's council is failing to make the most of the town's heritage or tourist potential, a new lobby group says.
The Timaru Urban Renaissance Network (TURN) has been set up by a heritage advocate to give residents living in Timaru a say on how the city is developed.
A number of shops in Timaru's town centre are empty. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Founder Ian Butcher said Timaru District Council was failing to provide leadership on the challenges of encouraging retail business and attracting visitors to the town's CBD.
There was a lack of co-ordinated planning and consultation with the public about what shape plans should take, he said.
"We've got no arts precinct, no recognisable heritage precinct, in fact there's no identifiable precinct at all.
"They've been talked about for some time but there's no cohesive plan."
The council had formed a steering committee to form a town centre management group, made up of retailers and stakeholders, to improve the CBD.
But it should not just be business owners and bureaucrats deciding the future of the town's centre, Mr Butcher said.
TURN planned to hold two public meetings next month with local body election candidates.
"We would hope there would be wide discussions about what we all see and want and meld the ideas to make a proper cohesive plan and stop this ridiculous ad hoc, knee-jerk planning or decision-making that's been going on today."
But Timaru mayor Damon Odey said the city did not have issues, but a raft of opportunities.
The working group was looking at how to make the most of the CBD, including parking, traffic flow and layout, in order to make Timaru more user-friendly.
While there are some empty shops, as long as the owners were meeting by-laws the council could not force them to use the space, Mr Odey said.
Aoraki Development chief executive and working group head Nigel Davenport said residents, retailers and landlords were ready for change.
Working party head Nigel Davenport Photo: Supplied / Aoraki Development
"The big part of that is getting the collaborative approach from the stakeholders - that's the whole community, not just the retailers and the landlords, it's actually everybody."
The main issue was how to attract people back to the CBD, he said.
Dunedin, Nelson and Whakatane were among urban centres he was seeking advice from.
"Some of these other areas have a very strong and vocal and active retailers' association and in Timaru we don't have that for varying reasons."
The working group is due to report back to the council by November.
