Te Ara ō Whakatū - Nelson’s City Centre Spatial Plan
Objectives
Nelson’s City Centre Spatial Plan, Te Ara ō Whakatū – The Pathways of Nelson, was adopted by the council in October 2021. The plan is a 30-year vision for the future of Nelson City, focusing on eight transformative actions that integrate culture, environment, streets, precincts, developments, places, and laneways into one framework.
People are the heart of a city's future. Well-planned cities foster liveability, growth, and innovation, attracting talent and investment that drive broader social, cultural, and economic benefits.
The city centre has long served as an engine of productivity and growth for the Whakatū Nelson region and with a diverse array of people, businesses and organisations already calling this area home, Nelson is off to a fine start.
Actions derived from Te Ara ō Whakatū will happen in the short, medium and long-term – so look forward to seeing greener streets, people-focused streets and more residents living in the city centre in the coming years.
Read the full plan here:
Or see a summarised version at Shape Nelson.
Te Ara ō Whakatū Monitoring
In 2024, we released a dashboard to monitor key indicators and outline which projects directly support Te Ara ō Whakatū objectives.
City Development Surveys
The council regularly monitors and surveys key aspects of city development to help guide decision making. Recent city development surveys include the Nelson Public Life survey, City Centre Streets for People survey, and the Nelson City Centre survey 2019.
Nelson Public Life Survey
Public Life Surveys are an observational method for generating quantitative data regarding ‘life’ in our streets, squares, parks and other public environments.
The first Public Life Survey was carried out over the winter of 2019, and the summer of 2020 over two seasons (winter and summer), and over two days (weekday and weekend). The follow up 2024 Survey has been completed and now gives us a comparison tool to see any changes in the areas and activities previously observed.
With Te Ara ō Whakatū being formally adopted and planning for initial permanent public realm upgrades underway, the city centre is on the precipice of major transformation - the data captures a newly established baseline which can be utilised in the future to gauge the activation resulting from this investment and future investment in the city.
Key findings:
- Pedestrian movements: While street life appears robust, and at times vibrant, footfall has, with the exception of winter Saturdays, decreased between 13% to 20% when compared to the 2019/2020 survey findings.
- Bicycle movements: For 2024, bicycle movements were registered during ‘peak’ times only, as informed by the 2019/2020 survey. When compared to 2020, weekday morning registrations during Summer reflect a +40% increase, while overall, Winter registrations grew by 46%.
- Staying activities: One significant change since 2019/2020 can be seen in the decrease of Summer staying activities, which reduced by approximately 50%. Dips in weekday staying activities may, in part, be attributed to changing work and shopping habits.
- A 20% increase in young people (aged under 14) has also been recorded within the City Centre after 3pm.
Nelson City Centre Survey
For more information, contact the Programme Lead, City Development at CityDevelopment@ncc.govt.nz.
