Conclusion and Recommendations 11

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Conclusion and Recommendations

The FutureCity Planning and Design Framework builds upon the foundation established by Council through their various policies and strategies, specifically the Community Strategic Plan, which highlights the communities aspirations for Orange at a high-level. The Activate Orange Economic Strategy provides further detail around the a roadmap for future economic development, and is supported by a range of other policies such as the Orange Active Travel Plan, Smart City and Heritage Plan. The FutureCity Planning & Design Framework seeks to bring together these documents by spatialising, prioritising and outlining how they can be realised.

The FutureCity project is aspirational and focused, establishing a clear direction for the city centre through its vision and themes that are represented by a range of projects. This is supporting by the Precinct, Movement and Place Strategies.

The “Kit of Parts” has been prepared to reflect the many and diverse opportunities and challenges that need to be addressed across the city centre, with input from the Council, government stakeholders, land-owners and the community. The long list of projects and programs were refined and catalogued to ensure their purposes aligns with the overarching vision and themes of FutureCity. A number of these projects were advanced as special projects to test initial ideas, stimulate the imagination and scope out future projects for future testing. Further detail has also been provided in relation to the public domain, which is captured in a Guideline that outlines a coordinated approach to the streets and spaces throughout the city centre.

The FutureCity project has evolved over 12-months into the Planning & Design Framework and its associated documents. Its a comprehensive document that reflects the complexities of the city, respects the work that precedes it, and will continue to change and evolve through future engagement, and most importantly, implementation.

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Conclusion and Recommendations

11.1 Prioritisation considerations

In the context of limited resources and competing priorities, both Council and community members, will need prioritise its investments and actions. For publicly led projects, a long term implementation strategy needs to be developed by OCC with input from the community, other agencies and partners. In prioritising projects further consideration should be given to the following:

Build on Orange’s Core Strengths

Leverage Orange’s reputation as a place with natural beauty, rich heritage, bespoke industries, and a fine food and beverage offer.

Invest in Community

Meet local community needs, creating opportunities for interaction and improving everyday life for the community.

Make a Visual difference

Ensure the projects are in the public eye and leveraging marketing potential. Consider the profile, visibility and audience of each project.

Generate Momentum

If there is a desire to achieve an specific objective Council must consider bold interventions into the property market to achieve a specific outcome, create a point of difference, generate interest, stimulate demand and shift trends.

Depth and Reach

As large investments often absorb significant resources with long term gains, ensure that there is a balance between deep, long term transformation whilst ensuring a spread of investment to deliver the greatest cumulative impact.

Partner and Spatially Target

Partner with multiple stakeholders to invest in the same geographical area to achieve a greater impact, competition and innovation.

Lighter, Cheaper, Quicker

Being open to experiment, pilot and explore ideas in advance of more permanent investment through smaller, low cost, short term interventions and installations.

Bite-Size Chunks

Breaking down larger projects into smaller implementable units to minimise disruption and free up resources for other projects.

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Conclusion and Recommendations

Based on these priorities and the catalogue of projects developed in Stage Three it is recommended that OCC consider the prioritisation of following projects:

Strategic property acquisition or divestment

· The acquisition of properties in the East City Precinct, adjacent to existing Council controlled assets in order to amalgamate and redevelop, targeting specific forms of development, sectors and enterprises that align with the FutureCity visions.

· Divest underutilised assets on the proviso that any future redevelopment is in a form, use and function that aligns with the FutureCity Vision and contributes positively to the city centre.

Larger Scale, High Impact, Medium-Long Term Projects

Robertson Park Masterplan

· Review of the design and layout of the park, its role and function.

Civic Precinct Masterplan Review

· A rapid review of existing proposals with the objective of opening the Precinct onto the surrounding streets, addressing Robertson Park and consolidating car parking.

Prince Street Upgrade and Sale Street Park

· Public domain improvements in advance of the release of land for housing development and the upgrading of TAFE.

Lords Place Transformative Street

· The incremental upgrading of Lords Place from the Civic Precinct to Wade Park.

Ophir Street Multi Storey Car Park

· The development of a multi-storey car park on the flood affected site to stimulate development within the East City Precinct.

March Street Crossing

· Work with the rail authorities, TfNSW and RMS to consider the opportunity for a new crossing on March Street, in addition to or as an alternative to Byng Street.

Anson Street Car Park/Woolworths

· Working with partners to transform the existing car park into a retail hub within the city centre.

11.2 Recommended priority projects

Urban Maintenance and Upgrading Projects

Summer Street upgrades

· Modest upgrades to Summer Street including the relocation of street lights, mid-block crossings and awning replacement and reinstatement projects.

Sale Street Community Arts Centre and square

· The upgrading of the Community Arts Centre and delivery of a new public open space on Sale Street.

Colvin Park upgrades

· Upgrades undertaken at the eastern gateway to the city centre associated with the former DPIE site and car dealership redevelopments.

Quick, Light, Cheap Projects

McNamara Street tactical urbanism

· Temporary installations in McNamara Lane and Street to change the image of the street and character of the East City Precinct.

Byng Street temporary closures

· Initiate a series of events that trial the temporary closure of Byng Street and its incorporation into the Robertson Park Masterplan.

Roundabout choking

· Narrowing the existing roundabouts through road markings and light touch installations of planters.

Open Streets Summer Street

· Regularly close Summer Street to general traffic for 4 hours on a Sunday to offer the community an opportunity to come together and interact.

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Conclusion and Recommendations

11.3 Next steps

In order to realise the goals and aspirations of the FutureCity vision, the various projects need to move from being good ideas on paper to being real projects. An action plan needs to be developed holistically, and for each project, informed by more detailed studies before projects are implemented. The adjacent diagram illustrates an approach to the next steps.

11.4 Monitoring and Evaluation

In order to ensure the progressive realisation of the vision its suggested that a select number of performance measures are selected and that these are used to track improvement over the medium to long term. A number of potential performance measures were identified in Chapter Three.

This study suggests that Council allocate resources to collecting and comparing data over the next 5 years:1. City centre spend analysis sourcing banking data to

get a handle on increase/decrease spending in the city centre and the geographical location/residential address of visitors

2. A FutureCity Community Survey undertaken on an annual basis targeting qualitative information form users of the city centre

3. Pedestrian and cycle counts at key locations on Summer Street using automatic counters

4. Student enrolment numbers at TAFE and Charles Sturt University

Develop Implementation Framework

Secure Council and community endorsement of the FutureCity framework

and undertake viability

Apply for and secure funding

Detail design and construct