Rotorua inner-city revitalisation: Civic plaza, sculpture and new courthouse among council’s ideas

A new "civic plaza" and sculpture, an arts precinct, cycleways and a wooden courthouse in a new location are among the council's vision for a revitalised city centre, documents reveal.

The council says they are "still just ideas" but documents show they were part of a pitch sent to the Government to get it to move the courthouse from its current location to make way for a "dynamic and vibrant civic plaza".

Local Democracy Reporting has obtained documents showing Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick wrote to then-Justice Minister Kris Faafoi on 24 May last year with the subject line "relocation of the Rotorua Court House to support our inner-city revitalisation".

In the letter, she asked Faafoi to consider the council's proposal to move the Rotorua Courthouse from the corner of Arawa and Tūtānekai Sts to a Te Arawa Lakes Trust-owned site on Pukuatua and Haupapa Sts.

Government plans to upgrade the district and high court were revealed by the Rotorua Daily Post in 2020.

In the letter, Chadwick said the Ministry of Justice had the opportunity to build New Zealand's first wooden courthouse through the proposal, and attached a memorandum to both Faafoi and Economic and Regional Development Minister Stuart Nash, which was written by council district development deputy chief executive Jean-Paul Gaston.

The council confirmed neither minister replied.

In Gaston's memo, he said the council's proposal would move the court to "a more suitable location".

He said the council had identified a site that met Ministry of Justice requirements and had secured agreement from Te Arawa Lakes Trust to either sell or lease the site.

"Te Arawa Lakes Trust are keen to move on the site now and delays may mean the potential opportunity is lost."

He said the proposal would enable the council to "create a dynamic and vibrant civic plaza" and the partnership would mean the Government could support the council's wood-first policy with the construction of a "showcase cross-laminated timber building".

Gaston said the council had been working on the development of an inner-city revitalisation plan since about May 2020, which would establish Tūtānekai St as the "inner city spine", with a "park-to-park corridor".

That "corridor" would connect Kuirau Park at Ranolf St and Government Gardens at Hinemaru St, and span the width between Arawa and Haupapa Sts.

"To bring the inner city to life, we are looking to develop special character precincts," Gaston wrote.

He said the area between Arawa and Haupapa Sts - which included the redeveloped Sir Howard Morrison Centre - was proposed as "the future arts precinct".

"As this is the nexus between the north south link ... and the east-west link, we [propose] this area to be developed as a civic plaza."

He said Whakaue to Arawa Sts - including Eat Streat - would be a dining precinct, with a retail precinct from Haupapa St to Amohau St.

Gaston's memo said Rotorua Economic Development - now called RotoruaNZ - had been trying to facilitate commercial engagement between Te Arawa Management - Te Arawa Lakes Trust's commercial entity - and the Ministry of Justice but there had been "limited progress".

"There is an increasing risk that the site may be lost due to other development opportunities."

Gaston attached an "engagement presentation" on the council's "inner city revitalisation plan development".

In that document, it described the future inner city as walkable, "enabled by a network of place and spaces like 'beads on a string'", with two diagrams giving examples of destinations on the south-north corridor and east-west corridor, calling them the "blue necklace" and "green necklace" respectively.

Destinations included Te Manawa (the old City Focus), the proposed civic plaza, Eat Streat and the lakefront.

It said the civic plaza could have a "potential destination attraction" giving the example of a public sculpture.

Fenton, Arawa, Amohau and Ranolf Sts would have priority for vehicles while other inner-city streets would be pedestrian-friendly, with cycle crossings to be considered and a "cycle network to [transverse] the inner city".

The final page of the presentation said engagement on the "spatial framework" with "partners and stakeholders" was under way, as was the development of "cultural foundations and design guide", an incentives policy to encourage city living, and the development of a draft inner-city revitalisation delivery plan.

The last point on the list, which was not yet under way, was consultation on the draft plan.

Last week, Gaston said the council did not receive a response from either Faafoi or Nash.

Asked if he believed the opportunity to move the court to the Te Arawa Lakes Trust property had been lost, he said it was for the Ministry of Justice to answer.

Gaston was also asked to describe more about the idea behind the civic plaza and park-to-park link, as well as what impact it could have on pedestrians, vehicles, roads and existing buildings.

He said there was "no detailed plan", but a "high-level idea" was to create another public space in the central business district.

Asked if the council had costed any of the plans, and if the council had considered funding sources, Gaston said there was "no detailed plan to cost".

"The ideas included in the framework - that resulted from the review of all of our previous inner-city plans - are still just ideas which are being explored to come up with a draft plan with more detail that we can then take to the community for feedback."

Ministry of Justice corporate and digital services deputy secretary Tina Wakefield said the ministry was in the "early stages of looking at options including the development of a new courthouse on a new site" in the city.

She said the ministry had engaged with the council and "representatives of Te Arawa" on "the council's blueprint to redevelop the city centre" including the proposal to relocate the existing court buildings.

She said the ministry would continue to engage with the council and Te Arawa "as options are developed in due course".

Faafoi - and his replacement, Kiri Allan - and Nash were approached for comment, including why Faafoi and Nash had not responded to the council personally.

Te Arawa Lakes Trust was also approached for comment.

Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air