Mildura Rural City Councillors last night endorsed concept designs which will transform Mildura's popular Feast Street into an even more vibrant, attractive and entertaining precinct.
A key component of the broader Mildura CBD Plan 2020-2035, the designs presented to Councillors were the result of an exhaustive consultation process, including feedback from both the broader community and local business owners.
Deputy Mayor and CBD Steering Committee Chair Cr Helen Healy said the new-look Feast Street would be based around a shared street design, replacing existing outdoor dining structures with attractive vine-laden pergola-like shelters running the length of both sides of the popular eatery strip.
Other features include:
- New tree-planting to provide more shade and amenity, creating a cooler, greener environment
- Widened footpaths
- Shared street with flush kerbs, providing improved pedestrian amenity and safety for pedestrians, as well as more flexibility for events
- New landscaped gateways at Seventh and Eight Streets
- Parallel car parking in Langtree Avenue and additional angle parking in Seventh Street
- Footpath-level street crossings
- Feature planters
- Public art opportunities, including wayfinding and storytelling sculptures and light boxes
- New lighting, including feature lighting.
Cr Healy said the redesigned Feast Street would elevate what is already recognised as Mildura's main eatery strip to another level.
"This is one of the most exciting and transformative developments proposed for our central business district in decades," the Deputy Mayor said.
"It will create an entirely new experience for locals, attract even more visitors to our region and provide a stronger drawcard for new businesses to establish themselves in our CBD.
"Importantly, the numerous elements outlined in the concept designs reflect what our residents and local businesses have told us they want to see and experience in Feast Street.
"It also progresses a key element in the Mildura CBD Plan 2020-2035."
Managing Director of Quality Hotel Mildura Grand, The Spanish Grill and The Coffee Palace, Baljinder Sandhu, welcomed the features outlined in the Feast Street concept plans, particularly the opportunities they would provide for more street events.
"The big opportunity we can see is for more street-based events like saw recently with the Street Feast event," Sandhu said.
"The additional tree-planting, and more space for entertaining with the shared street concept will lend itself to more of these type of events, which are amazing for our business and the broader CBD."
Cr Healy said the designs endorsed at last night's Ordinary Council meeting were the result of months of work and consultation with the public, traders and business sector, including whittling down six initial concepts to the final version, which was achieved in consultation with the community.
Work will now progress to deliver a detailed shovel-ready design which will be used to attract the necessary funding to complete the project.
