MILDURA’S city centre has shifted out to Fifteenth Street as Langtree Mall and the “old” CBD remain stuck in a by-gone era, Cr Glenn Milne says.
Cr Milne, a former mayor, said the city’s traditional CBD would have a “bright future” with more specialty shops and residential development – “but it’s not the centre of Mildura anymore”.
“I’m looking at all the development and business growth around Fifteenth Street,” Cr Milne said last week.
“Virtually all the car yards have moved there from central Mildura, and industry, shopping and the bulk-buy stores have been moving out there too.
“With the redevelopment of the plaza (Mildura Central) on the cards, we’ve got to realise this is main shopping centre of the city.
“It means we need to think much differently about old Mildura city and what it becomes and think about seeing the centre of Mildura on Fifteenth Street.”
At a time when Sunraysia Daily is shining a light on the future of the CBD and Langtree Mall, Cr Milne and his new sparring partner, Cr Stefano de Pieri, have debated how they see the direction of both areas.
Cr de Pieri, who owns a CBD business, hit back at Cr Milne, saying: “When visitors come to Mildura, they don’t immediately go to Fifteenth Street.
“The official face of the city is the old city of Mildura, notwithstanding the fact that Mildura South and Irymple will develop.”
The pair then rolled out their visions for Langtree Mall, where almost half the shops are empty.
“At some stage, you’ve just to say that it’s not working and people are not shopping there for a reason,” Cr Milne said said.
“It’s time to look at sensible, economic ways to look at change, and having one-way traffic through the mall would be a relatively low-cost plan.”
However, Cr de Pieri estimated it would cost ratepayers “several million dollars” to reopen the mall to traffic.
“You need to ask the question: ‘Would the opening up of the mall improve that strip?’” he said.
“If traffic is the solution, you tell me why there’s a heap of empty shops on Ninth Street at the end of the mall, opposite Ryan Legal, where there is a heap of parking nearby.
“I’m a trader and I’ve been here in business 30 years. I can tell you that it’s the kind of offering you put up that determines whether people will come to you or not.”
The councillors’ comments come on the heels of a Sunraysia Daily poll, which showed an overwhelming 79 per cent of 1593 respondents did not support the mall in its current form.
There was also a strong push in the poll for the mall to be demolished and reopened to traffic.
Cr Milne said the council “should be listening to what the people are saying” about the mall’s future.
“They just want to be able to grab a park, run in and grab some stuff and go,” he said.
Cr de Pieri said the shop owners in the mall “have to come to the party and decide what they are going to put in there”.
“If they need to make the shop sizes smaller to appeal to more quirky and boutique stuff, then so be it,” he said.
“Before we spend millions of dollars of ratepayers’ money, we should be looking at the experiences of other regional cities and go from there.”
The pair did find some common ground on the potential of further residential development in the CBD.
“If we get could have multi-storey units built on the shops, it would make it a desirable location for retired people, who aren’t at the stage of needing care, to live in more of a laid-back setting,” Cr Milne said.
Cr de Pieri also said there was “plenty of scope” for residential development along the mall strip.
“I don’t think council will oppose residential,” he said. “Everything is in the mix.”
