Draft masterplans for Melville Oval, Gray Street and Lonsdale Street will be on display this month and Council is inviting feedback on the concept designs from the Greater Hamilton community. The plans have been developed by urban designers Jensen PLUS, who were engaged by Council in 2019 to design improvements to some of Hamilton’s important CBD streets and public spaces.
The draft masterplan follows a community ‘Co-design’ Workshop held in February 2019 where locals helped identify design concepts with the team from Jensen PLUS. Over 318 people attended the co-design workshop over the three days and there were hundreds of comments submitted via online engagement tool ‘social pinpoint’. The team then reviewed all of this valuable input and developed the draft masterplan.
Jensen PLUS’s Michael McKeown said the team will be visiting Hamilton this month to showcase the concepts in the draft masterplan for Hamilton.
‘We have created visualisations of how Melville Oval, Gray Street and Lonsdale Street could look in the future, and we’ve also put these designs into VR goggles for locals to see for themselves,” Mr McKeown said.
“We’ll be at the Hub Shopping Centre on Thursday 20 February and we invite community members to drop in and see the designs up close and let us know what they think. The ‘virtual tour’ can also be viewed online at Council’s website for those who are unable to make it on Thursday”.
The focus for the masterplan is Melville Oval, Lonsdale Street and Gray Street, as well as other connecting streets and laneways. The designs explore options to improve walking and cycling, introduce more public art and signage, better public spaces and parking, and improved trees and landscaping.
Southern Grampians Shire Mayor Cr Chris Sharples said the project is vitally important to the Greater Hamilton region.
“This project was identified as part of the city-wide Hamilton Structure Plan prepared by Council in 2012, and follows the design work completed for the upgrades at Cox Street. Improving connection between Hamilton’s key retail and sporting precincts is critical to re-activating our CBD.
“This is an intergenerational project, co-designed with the community, to ensure the future growth of Hamilton and fulfil our vision for the Hamilton CBD to be the civic, shopping, business, entertainment, social, cultural and community heart of the city and region. We look forward to hearing the community feedback on the concept designs,” Cr Sharples said.
The visualisations, along with the draft masterplan, are available to view now on Council’s website. Feedback can be submitted to DaAdamson@sthgrampians.vic.gov.au or via the council facebook page. Stay up-to-date via Council’s website or by contacting Council on 5573 0237.