Featherston residents prefer keeping the train station where it is. PHOTO/FILE
Featherston has spoken.
A radical idea to move the train station to the centre of town has not received the green light from residents.
Informal feedback shared at a council workshop last week was that only 10 per cent of people supported the idea and associated growth plan.
The majority of support [64 per cent] was given to another growth plan option which would keep the train station where it is.
Four per cent “didn’t know” what option to support, and 22 per cent wanted neither.
The most popular option for Featherston’s Masterplan involves increased density around the main street and existing train station.
It aims to make better use of existing urban land and does not encourage the development of general or medium-density development beyond the existing established boundaries.
The minimum lot size across Featherston is 500 square metres.
The option preferred by the community proposes that general residential sites be subdivisible down to lots of 300m2.
This will be of help to many property owners who have 800-900m2 lots but who cannot subdivide at present.
Medium-density residential area sites would be able to be subdivided down to lots of 200m2, allowing for the likes of townhouses and apartments.
This area roughly covers lots within 400 metres of St Teresa’s School.
This could provide an additional 574 dwellings if 25 per cent of sites are developed.
Residents involved in the council’s informal consultation said this was a one-time opportunity to develop Featherston into a futuristic town and that the town centre was already showing age.
They said the retail section of Featherston was “very disjointed” and the town needed remodelling to create better social infrastructure.
Work on the draft masterplan is still ongoing.
The draft was scheduled to be presented to council at the end of the year.
Formal consultation with the community would follow in the new year. – NZLDR
- Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
