Translate
In Australia, Mainstreet Programs were the forerunner of self-managed, special levy funded organisations charged with improving business districts.
In 2008 together with People, Place and Partnership, we prepared 3 year Community Strategic Plans for 7 Town Centres in Lake Macquarie.
In July 2007 Lake Macquarie City Council adopted a Town Centre Program which replaced Special Rate Levy funding for Main Street Programs in Belmont, Toronto, and Warners Bay, with general rate levy funding for seven town centres: Belmont, Toronto, Warners Bay, Charlestown, Morisset, Swansea and Cardiff.
We were engaged by Lake Macquarie City Council to:
- conduct community strategic planning workshops in 7 town centres funded by Council through the general rate levy;
- integrate the outcomes of those workshops with Council’s future planning, in particular the 10 year Community Plan;
- identify City Wide opportunities for town centre development and as a result:
- develop a 3 year Strategic Plan for each town centre, from which the funded Chambers of Commerce could develop their own annual Business Plans in accordance with their new contracts with Lake Macquarie City Council.
The community strategic planning workshops were conducted against a background of considering numerous Council planning documents, and each individual town centre’s past business plans. During both the background reading and the workshops themselves, it became apparent that stakeholders’ lofty ambitions for their town centres had, in the past, led to somewhat impractical business plans that:
saw the funded Chambers attempting to duplicate actions which were already being undertaken by Council; and
did not always focus on practical, achievable projects with clearly identified objectives, expected outcomes and performance measures.
Our final report not only offered simple, clear priorities for each of the town centres. We also identified City Wide Strategies which could eliminate unnecessary duplication of activities (and wastage of funding). We also developed an additional report to Council recommending specific contractual changes to better define the relationship between Council and the funded Chambers.