INTRODUCING one-way traffic, street art, greenery and a light show to Millicent’s shopping precinct were among the numerous suggestions put forward to Wattle Range Council at last week’s main street rejuvenation meeting.
Around 50 people attended the public consult and were given the opportunity to voice planning ideas following last year’s budget funding allocation of $100,000 to beautify the town’s business area.
Interested business owners, property owners and community members joined councilors in exploring ideas for the development and rejuvenation.
Council chief executive Ben Gower said the nature of retail was rapidly changing and town’s like Millicent had felt the impact of that for at least a decade.
“It will continue to change,” he said.
“That is the downside of what is happening to the world’s economy and the way we are evolving.
“What we want to do is have a look at what we can do to rejuvenate our main streets to bring people back into town.
“For all business owners in town, they will look at their business models and figuring how they can adapt and change and we will help them with that.
“What we want to do is look at the streetscape and what we can do to make Millicent an attractive place to stop in, grab a coffee, get your haircut, buy your groceries.
“We want to get as many ideas as we possibly can.”
Community members attending the consultation were divided into groups and given time to brainstorm ideas across three categories – beautification, shop fronts and traffic movement, including roadways and footpaths.
Among the beautification initiatives raised were introducing a light show on the water tower, greenery, planter boxes, murals, sculptures, building a town square, bright and graphic signage, reducing car parks to offer more seated areas, creating user friendly spaces, painting pavers.
Meanwhile, local displays inside the windows of empty buildings, general maintenance including painting and cleaning windows, outdoor dining and updating the toilets were all ideas put forward to improve the shopfronts.
A popular proposition among the six groups when it came to traffic movement was transforming George Street into a one-way street and introducing angled-parking.
“We have a couple of different ideas for malls,” Millicent resident Sandi Spink said.
“Closing the Somerset to the Post Office and paving that.
“Have the gap between the Country Fire Service lane and then lane that goes down to Davenport Street near the engineering as a one way road with angled parking as you go up.
“The other option was closing off the Post Office to Davenport Street and having a small mall there and maybe utilising some of the police station’s little compound there for green grass, trees, a barbecue and whatever.
“That would also solve the problem of that really bad intersection near Woolworths, the chemist and the Lioness’ bookshop.”
Other ideas for traffic movement were levelling the footpaths and creating wider footpaths for alfresco dining, off street and caravan parking, zebra crossings in George Street, water drinking stations, create garden walls, free bikes and bike pump and tool-kit stations.
Mayor Des Noll highlighted the importance of hosting consultation sessions with the community to those attending.
“What comes of this are all those ideas,” he said.
“No matter how outside the scope they are, collectively we will work together, analyse and go through them and see what pops out.
“That is pretty exciting and this is a significant opportunity for people in our community to come and voice their opinions about how they think it should look.
“Who knows the smallest idea, or the biggest idea, could be your idea that gets delivered to action.”
Data from the consult will be collated and presented to council for discussion to be added to the strategic plan.
The consult looked at redeveloping from the round about adjacent the council chambers, down to Glen Street, Short Street, Railway Terrace and Davenport Street.
The Wattle Range region’s two other major retail outlet towns – Beachport and Penola – will be considered in future budget discussions for rejuvenation.
