I have been working on a small project involving my hometown's commercial centre, Homedale village. Historically it used to be Wainuiomata's main commercial centre but in more recent history it has become rundown.
Aerial Map of how it currently looks. Land Information New Zealand
My project's goal is to just simply suggest how the village could be redeveloped. I feel that this is necessary to do now more than any time because of the rest of the suburb's development and recent proposals for Puketahā wildlife sanctuary gives the village a unique position as the ecological hub of the Hutt. But what it needs to get there is a proper redevelopment that brings modernity and community to the village.
There is a lot going on here, so lets break it down.
A new dedicated space for parking: We need to increase parking in this area to encourage more people to stop by on their travels, this also includes accessibility parking for those who need it. The island between the parking lot and the road ensures that pedestrians nearby can safely and efficiently move by without making serious deviations. The 170 bus route was also moved up onto that island to make accessing the shops easier and quicker.
A venue building: I notice that there is not a dedicated town hall styled building anywhere nearby, and we instead use the primary school’s assembly hall for things like discussions and voting, so I feel like we could instead have a dedicated building towards that kind of activity, and for any group to use, which would help at building a community.
Mixed buildings: Some of the builds would house apartments on their second floors. This is a good way at ensuring a sense of the village not being just a commercial centre but also a community centre.
More green space: Quite simply the village needs more green space, a big aim of the concept is to make the village a place where locals can go to hang out and for people from afar to visit and enjoy. By introducing more plants to the area it will make the area a lot more pleasant and more representative of its surroundings.
With these, and everything else combined, we could rebirth the village into the second heart of Wainuiomata. A new hub that connects the Remutakas and the water collection area to the rest of the Hutt in a fresh and modern manner.
Disclaimer: I don't think it needs to be said but I'm not an urban designer nor am I experienced in this topic, I don’t even have a learners drivers license so I have no clue if I got the road layout right. I just have a personal connection to this area and this is my idea/concept of making the village a better place than how it was when I was growing up.The contents within the website are licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Please feel free to take the site's code and use it for your own project.