KILMORE residents will be able to help shape a $3.37 million Sydney Street rejuvenation project aimed at brining the town’s historic precinct to life.
Mitchell Shire Council last week unveiled streetscape plans for the project, which will stretch between Clarke and Bourke streets.
Included in the designs are plans to add more street trees, pedestrian islands and heritage-style streetlights with promotional banners, improve disabled parking and add heritage-style street furniture, bluestone pavements and a heritage colour scheme.
Council also commissioned heritage-inspired designs for new town entry signs and Sydney Street historic precinct signs, as well as motifs that can be used by council and traders for promotional campaigns.
The project will be funded with $2.423 million from the State Government’s Growing Suburbs Fund, $500,000 from the Regional Infrastructure Fund and $445,173 from council.
Existing street trees between Bourke and Union streets will be replaced with 17 deciduous trees – black tupelos and Jerilderie reds – while the area between Clarke and Union streets will see 69 new trees planted.
A total of 34 on-street parking spaces are set to be removed under current plans, but council said improvements would be made to disabled parking, including the relocation and upgrade of existing spaces along with the addition of a disabled new space.
Council has also committed to improving signage in the centre of town to make it easier for people to find nearby parking, as well as improving access to more than 250 off-street and on-street parking areas.
Mitchell Shire Mayor Rhonda Sanderson encouraged community members to provide input and help choose the heritage colour scheme, sign designs, banners and historic stories as part of the rejuvenation project.
“These projects were identified with extensive community input when the Kilmore Town Centre Plan was adopted back in 2016,” she said.
“We’ve been working to secure funding and progress the plans since then and, thanks to the Victorian Government, we’ve now reached this exciting milestone.
“We hope this will transform and revitalise the Sydney Street shops and the historic heart precinct and breathe new life into Kilmore for many years to come.
“We’ve also identified potential future works with more plantings in the centre median once the bypass is funded and built at which point Sydney Street will no longer be needed as a major arterial road or as an oversize vehicle route.”
Council will host an online information session on Wednesday, July 28 from 12pm, with registration via council’s Engaging Mitchell website.
Subject to COVID restrictions, drop-in sessions with more detailed plans will be at the John Taylor Room in council’s Kilmore Customer and Library Service Centre from 9am to 12pm on Saturday, July 31 and from 4pm to 7pm on Thursday, August 5.
There will also be an information display at the centre during business hours from July 28 to August 6.
People can view the plans, the latest information about drop-in sessions and provide input on the heritage colours, stories and signs by visiting www.engagingmitchellshire.com.
Bypass! Trucks are ruining the town!
Please don’t waste the money, it’s not possible to comfortably sit outside to enjoy the streetscape with hundreds of trucks roaring by not to mention thier smelly fumes. Please save the existing historic ambience by improving the traffic congestion. It boggles the mind how this huge problem can so easily be overlooked. I have lived here for 3 years and hate, hate pulling my car out of the driveway.
Lol trees will die within months from all the truck fumes, here’s an idea, build the friggin kilmore bypass