Restructure

For the first time since 1958, the operations of the City of Launceston council was overhauled.

In the document first obtained by The Examiner, then general manager Michael Stretton shared a proposal for the organisation's future.

The Organisational Alignment Project Seriously Entertained Change Discussion Paper said the council would consider the future of its major assets: UTAS Stadium and Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery.

It also proposed a number of staff changes, with a full list of redundancies included, along with new position titles.

The change saw Mr Stretton's title change from general manager to chief executive, and then have three general managers below him.

The changes came into place at the start of December.

About $1.3 million in redundancies was paid out by the council as part of its restructure.

Invermay Traffic master plan

It was a critical piece of work for the council, Mr Stretton said.

Despite deferring the project for the new council in 2018, the council took more than 12 months to bring the plan back to the table for a vote.

The council said work on the plan was still happening in the background of the 12 months, meaning that once the plan came back for a vote many projects were are the design and build stage.

The plan outlines 14 priority projects, aimed at improving the safety and movement of people and freight through the area.

"We're fully aware of the pressures on the existing intersections in and around Lindsay and Goderich Streets, and across the Charles Street Bridge," Mr Stretton said.

"Those projects include a new link road behind Bunnings to ease congestion at the Bunnings intersection, a new intersection at Goderich and Gleadow streets."

Included in this body of work was details of traffic signal upgrades to be undertaken by the Department of State Growth, in partnership with the federal government and the council.

"We expect a number of the initiatives outlined in the master plan will be delivered during the 2019-20 financial year," Mr Stretton said.

Riverbend Park opening

It was the most talked out event of the year for parents and children. Thousands flocked to the long-awaited opening of Riverbend Park.

The official opening was pushed back a number of times, but the council said it would be worth the wait and it has now been dubbed the best in Tasmania.

It is divided into four zones including the River Play area, Gorge Play area, Wild Core area, and the Urban Plaza. There are ball courts, barbecue facilities and something for everyone - young and old.

Work was also completed on the Seaport pedestrian bridge across the North Esk. Meaning the whole North Bank region has been completely transformed - from an unattractive, unappealing industrial site to a brand new community space that will bring people back to the river, Mr Stretton said.

The Gorge playground was also completed about March. The area features an all-abilities playspace, a water play zone, a sand pit, a giant mouse-wheel treadmill and a nature-based play zone.

Through considered planning, it now means the play area has been designed to provide better flood protection to those facilities, where previously the equipment was always seemingly damaged in some way when the Gorge flooded.

Shopping in the City report

The Shopping in the City report aimed to examine why people choose to shop in Launceston, and some of the factors that prevent them from doing so.

The council commissioned a study into the retail sector with expert and University of Tasmania marketing lecturer Dr Louise Grimmer.

Dr Grimmer recommended improved parking, an integrated city marketing campaign, and skills development workshops for modern retail requirements.

She also made recommendations regarding the negative sight of empty shops in the CBD.

The report cost ratepayers about $16,650.

Building heights report

A report to look into the acceptable height limits for the central business area was commissioned by the council.

Paul Davies completed the report, with the council approving the report recommendations, meaning minimum heights will now be 14 metres before the plan has to be released for public consultation, and a maximum of 24 metres.

The Launceston Chamber of Commerce said it was "desperately unhappy" with the first iteration of the report, but was happier with the changes.

Councillors around the table agreed the report would give clear direction for future developers.

The plan to regulate the city's building heights was approved unanimously by the council.

"While work on a much larger piece of work in that space continues, I believe we will have an excellent reference for dealing with building heights across the city that gives both certainty for developers as well as protecting the social fabric of what makes Launceston unique," Mr Stretton said.

Tomorrow Together

A move to get the community and business industry to work together to tackle the challenges facing Launceston was also launched.

Tomorrow Together is new way for the council to engage with the community. Rather than getting the feedback from proposals, the council up front asked what was important to the community and helped find solutions.

The conversations are now about building a resilient, well-designed and a unique and prosperous city. Along with an accessible, inclusive and sustainable city.

"The response from the community so far has been encouraging and we will continue to roll out this innovative approach to engaging with the our residents into the New Year," Mr Stretton said.

Free parking

As part of mayor Albert van Zetten's 2018 election campaign, and councillor Alan Harris', the pair rallied for free parking.

Cr van Zetten said he would move a motion to look into it, and Cr Harris would aim for free parking in the multi-storey parks.

In November 2018, the council supported a motion to look into free parking.

The council looked into offering 60-90 minutes free, but its evidence-based research showed the proposal was not likely to entice more people into the city, with the opposite effect likely.

A cashless parking option was introduced early in 2019, which Mr Stretton said has been a success. The EasyPark app allows people to pay for their on-street parking without the need for coins.

"The EasyPark app has been very well received by the public and has been used more than 300,000 times since its launch in January," Mr Stetton said.

Climate emergency

Declaring a climate emergency created a large amount of heat for the council.

Residents and ratepayers spoke out in support and against the item, however the motion was passed.

The council was the first in the state to declare an emergency.

The motion was put forward by councillor Nick Daking who said he did not believe in climate change for years until the wettest winter in 100 years damaged his house.

Cr Daking said future generations deserved to grow up in a healthy climate.

In light of the council declaring a climate emergency, it prioritised the development of a council-wide Sustainability Strategy, which was delivered later in the year.

"As a Local Government Authority, we're committed to reducing our carbon footprint and finding practical, effective ways to improve our energy use, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions," Mr Stretton said.

"This strategy outlines our direction forward to create a more sustainable city now and into the future."

Macquarie House opening

It took about six years since the idea was first touted, but the historic Macquarie House was officially re-opened in September.

It is one of Launceston's oldest buildings, and had been in a relatively run-down state before being redeveloped.

The circa-1829 building had not been used for permanent activity since the 1940s, and has mostly acted as storage space for the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, along with a restaurant based in its basement in the 1990s.

The first two floors are a shared space for start-up venture Enterprize, with a cafe space planned for the basement.

In total, the federal government provided $2.8 million, the City of Launceston $600,000 and the state government gave seed funding to Enterprize.

QVMAG audit

The audit of the Queen Victoria Museum is progressing. The audit was a response to the council announcing it had lost one of its paintings.

"The collections audit at the Queen Victoria Museum is an extremely important project for council," Mr Stretton said.

"It's an enormous project for our museum staff and a lot of planning work has gone on behind the scenes for a number of months in the lead-up to the audit starting, and we expect that project to be gaining a lot of momentum next year and for several years to come."

Federal election

Mr Stretton said the council fared pretty well during the 2019 federal election, with significant funding pledged for the region.

"Specifically as a council, we were successful in lobbying for more than $27 million in funding for a range of projects, including $15 million for the Northern Suburbs Community Hub, funding for a feasibility study for an Eastern Bypass, $10 million for upgrades to the Albert Hall and feasibility studies for an new indoor sports centre and QVMAG," he said.

UTAS Stadium resurface

For the first time in 20 years, UTAS Stadium has a new surface.

The $3.5 million project was completed ahead of schedule despite tight time frames in between the football and cricket season.

The entire surface, drainage, irrigation system and fencing at UTAS Stadium was removed and replaced.

The playing surface was reduced in size by about three metres from the eastern side, while pockets will be realigned to create a truer oval shape and the interchange area will shift to closer to centre wing.

A 22,000 square metre turf farm was built at Dilston to grow the turf because of Tasmania's quarantine laws.

"There was an element of risk involved in this project, given the pretty tight deadlines everyone was working to - squeezing a really significant civil project in between the end of the AFL season and being in a position to deliver a national-quality playing surface before the first Big Bash League match in December," Mr Stretton said.

Australia Day

The City of Launceston council voted to scrap its Australia Day celebrations and instead hold them on a less contentious day, becoming the state's second municipality to do so.

The council will now hold its citizenship ceremony, which is usually held on Australia Day, on January 25.

The council's National Australia Day Awards program will also be replaced with a community recognition awards ceremony, that will also be held on January 25.

Gorge Hotel

The council approved about 650 development applications during 2019, including JAC Group's Gorge Hotel proposal.

It was advertised three times in total due to council error, got more than 30 representations, and approved.

However, the hotel was appealed, and the Resource Management Planning Appeals Tribunal disagreed with the council's decision, basically stopping the project in its tracks.

Consultancy data

The council is implementing changes to its reporting systems to make information about its use of external consultants available.

The change came after repeated requests for The Examiner for the data.

Data on external consultants engaged by the council had no been previously recorded, Mr Stretton said.

In 2019, the council has used external consultants to look into free parking, shopping in the city, organisational restructure, building heights, and has requested an external consultant be used for a review into Cityprom.

Tourism and events

For the first time, Launceston played host to the Qantas Australian Tourism Awards in the Cataract Gorge. It was a spectacular coup for the city, with more than 800 of the country's most influential tourism operators together in the heart of Launceston in what was an incredibly successful event.

The potential spin-offs of that type event can't be underestimate, Mr Stretton said.

"Tourism is an extremely important industry for Launceston with the potential for considerable growth and it's important we continue to leverage every opportunity possible to grow that market," he said.

"It's events like the awards that put Launceston on the map in terms of other major events. For example, during the year - in conjunction with Tourism Northern Tasmania, we secured both the junior and senior national Special Olympics in 2020 and 2022 respectively."

These major events will see thousands of athletes, their supporters and families coming to Launceston and injecting millions of dollars into our economy - whether that's staying in hotels, buying meals and food, spending money in our retail stores.

"From the council's perspective, securing the rights to host these type of events is extremely important and goes well beyond simply providing a sporting event for people to attend for entertainment purposes. That economic injection also provides an employment boost to the region," Mr Stretton said.

IN 2020

Mr Stretton said his team will certainly hit the ground running.

"There's a renewed sense of enthusiasm and a clear direction following the strategic restructure we began earlier this year," he said.

Work will start on rolling out the recommendations of the My Place My Future strategy that focuses on the northern suburbs.

"It's a an exciting project and a key aspect of the Launceston City Deal, which was extended out to 10 years as a commitment from the Liberal Government during the 2018 federal election campaign," Mr Stretton said.

"We will begin looking at new and exciting ways we can leverage off this deal moving forward and identifying new strategies and projects we can submit for possible funding.

"We already have a couple in mind, but the next 12 months will be about cementing those initial ideas and plans into plausible projects that will greatly benefit the city both in the short and long term."

Other aspects of the City Deal, such as the Cultural Strategy, planning for stage two of the City Heart Project, the development of University of Tasmania Stadium and future governance planning, the River Health Action Plan and locking in a direction for future sediment management of kanamaluka/Tamar Estuary are projects the council will focus on in 2020.

"One of the hot-button issues in Launceston is traffic so we will be looking to progress our transport vision with the aim of collaborating with the state and federal government around the Eastern Bypass project, which we received federal funding to complete a feasibility study," Mr Stretton said.

"And finally, we will be looking forward to the first sod being turned on the first stage of the University of Tasmania redevelopment early in the year. That's a project we have worked collaboratively on with the University and we firmly believe there are many positive outcomes both for Launceston and the wider region of having a uni campus in the city."

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