Pre 1992 upgrade
Prior to the 1992 works, the East Mall section of Beardy Street was a two-way street with parking on both sides.
Prior to the 1992 works this section of Beardy Street was home to a selection of banks, motor garages, hardware supplies, grocery shops, department stores and numerous small businesses.
A trial closure of this section of East Mall was undertaken in 1980 after the Central Mall was created in 1977, however the trial was not supported by the businesses in the East Mall who recorded a significant loss in business trade as a result of the trial, largely putting this down to a lack of parking and vehicle access.
Whilst the trial street closure was not successful, there was still support from the businesses and community to upgrade the East Mall, with the current arrangement coming to fruition in 1992. This upgrade aimed to balance parking and vehicular access with opportunities for pedestrian activities.
1992: East Mall Upgrade
The current East Mall streetscape was completed in1992 and remains largely untouched to the present day.
2003: Armidale CBD Streetscape Design Project
This project proposed upgrades to numerous streets and intersections around the Armidale CBD. Works completed under this project include the current ‘West Mall’ arrangement, and reconfiguration works within the Central Mall. This plan made recommendations to alter certain aspects of the East Mall, however these works were never completed.
2015-2017: Armidale City Mall Vibrancy Plan
The Armidale City Mall Vibrancy Plan was developed between 2015 and 2017 in close consultation with business owners and the community. The Mall Vibrancy Plan contained numerous recommendations for all three sections of the Mall and contained a set of ‘next steps’ to make the Mall more vibrant, these being:
1. More People
2. More Support
3. Infrastructure
4. More Business
As a result of feedback received from businesses and the public during exhibition of the Mall Vibrancy Plan it was confirmed that traffic flow and parking opportunities in the East Mall needed to be reviewed as the current arrangement was not working.
2017-2018: Armidale Mall Revitalisation Project
Following closely behind the adoption of the Mall Vibrancy Plan, Council initiated the process to produce concept plans for upgrades to the West, Central and East Mall. King & Campbell were awarded the project after successfully winning the competitive tender process.
After feedback was received from the community on the draft initial concept designs, the project was not completed and the plans developed at that time were not endorsed by Council.
As such, whilst numerous projects have looked into changes to the East Mall over many years, these projects never resulted in a Council adopted plan that could be used to transform this section of Beardy Street.
What will the East Mall project look at?
The East Mall project will, in close consultation with the public and key stakeholders, develop a set of concept plans that will look at a wide range of upgrades/changes/opportunities and incentives to revitalise the East Mall.
A number of options will be investigated and placed on public exhibition for feedback with some of those options being informed by previous studies and feedback received from previous public exhibitions. Once feedback has been received on the initial concept plans, a revised set of plans will be developed which reflect the feedback received.
All of the options for the East Mall will involve careful consideration of the following key design elements:
- Retaining some level of traffic.
- Embracing flexibility in the management of traffic and pedestrians.
- Exploring traffic flow arrangements
- Increasing the number of parking spaces available.
- Intersection upgrades.
- Maximising amenity and activation generally.
Public exhibition will be targeted towards seeking feedback on the options presented, which will include different configurations of the following streetscape elements:
- Amount of additional parking
- Opportunities for street-trading and outdoor dining
- Opportunities for road closure during special events
- Landscaping, lighting, technology and street furniture designs
- Opportunities for heritage interpretation/improvement
- Building and façade improvements
- Improved pedestrian connectivity to surrounding streets and car-parks
- Materials selection and overall design