A $4.5 million plan to bring more vibrancy to Hastings' city centre could be a "massive" missed opportunity if it does not allow cars to cross the railway track "dissecting" its main street, a Havelock North commercial property expert says.
A submission from independent property valuers Turley and Co, to yesterday's Hastings District Council Long Term Plan hearings, suggested that the city's pedestrianised central mall, which cuts the city's main thoroughfare in half, should be reworked to allow one-way vehicular traffic.
"The Hastings pedestrian mall alongside a railway line created in the 1980s was a mistake that needs to be reworked," Turley and Co general manager Pat Turley said.
"We firmly believe the mall should be remodelled to lightly allow one-way cars, like Emerson St in Napier, that is successful people-centric but (has been) allowing cars for 20 years."
The existing situation had disadvantaged the CBD's main street length - a situation further "exacerbated" by a railway "dissecting the core of the city".