Island Bay village upgrades

A zebra crossing in Island Bay village after the upgrades. A cyclist is curving a bend on the cycle path.

Project updates

January 2025

The upgrade to Island Bay village was completed in November 2024.

The updates were designed to make the area safer, more accessible, and to support the local businesses and community spaces we all love.

New kōwhai trees and native plants are now dotted around the shopping area, providing shade and greenery. This not only creates a more inviting space but also encourages tūī and other native birds to visit.

Wider, smoother footpaths now make it easier to get around, whether you’re pushing a pram, using a wheelchair, or simply out for a stroll. This also designates more space for businesses to spill out onto the footpath in the furniture area, as visible with Blue Belle Café, and further towards Floyd’s Café, while ensuring a clear, safe pathway for all pedestrians.

New murals and historic references have also been tied into the upgrades. Created with help from local artists, working groups, historical society and schools, they include scenes of boats in the harbour, historic tram tracks, Paekwakawa awa signage, pavers with quotes and kōrero about the area’s history, bringing culture and colour to Island Bay. A couple more small items soon to come.

The north/south bike lane is now complete, keeping cyclists and pedestrians separate to make moving through the area safer for everyone. This connects Newtown to Shorland Park.

We’ve converted some long-term parking into P60 spaces to boost visitor access for local businesses. Previously, many of these spaces could be taken up by all-day parking, meaning fewer spaces for people coming into shop, eat, or visit. With these changes, we’re making sure parking is available when you need it and supporting a healthy turnover for local shops.

About the project

The aim of the village upgrade is to improve access, increase safety, and strengthen the suburb's special identity. Funding for the project was approved in our Long-Term Plan 2021-2031.

The village upgrade project covers the main shopping area in conjunction with the  Parade Safety Improvements project that looks at creating a separate cycle lane and road markings. These two projects will be delivered together.

Working with people who live and run businesses in the area, we developed a concept design that will:

prioritise pedestrians
strengthen the identity and special character of Island Bay village
improve safety and accessibility
provide more attractive and functional spaces for community activity
resurface footpaths and improve the lighting
upgrade stormwater infrastructure to accommodate changes in road and footpath levels.

Map showing the scope of the Island Bay village upgrade, centered around Avon Street, Medway Street, Clyde Street, and the Library. — Area included in the scope of the project

Project scope

The scope of work includes improvements to the area’s environment, bike network, lighting, public spaces, heritage, and parking. This includes resurfacing the footpaths and crossings to improve accessibility and safety, creating appealing places to stop and rest with new seating options, installing new bins and bike racks, and creating more space for businesses where people can sit and relax.

The project construction schedule will happen as a series of works starting from Avon Street to the south at the library.

Island Bay village upgrades annotated concept plan (14MB PDF)

Island Bay village upgrades parking plan (1.18MB PDF)

Design plan

To improve access and safety, and accentuate the suburb's coastal location, the new design elements include:

Environment: Garden beds with native coastal plants and grasses, and raised planter boxes.

Lighting: New lighting in the pedestrian laneway between The Parade and Clyde Street, up lights to make a feature of the trees and seats.

Public spaces: Resurface footpaths to improve accessibility and safety, create appealing places to stop and rest with new benches and bespoke site-specific seats, install new bins and bike racks, and create more space for businesses where people can sit and relax.

Arts and heritage: Include stories and quotes that reflect the area's history in surfaces and signs, and have local artists develop murals on the public toilets and in the laneway between The Parade and Clyde Street.

Outside Island Bay Library: Upgrade the outdoor space so it is more appealing and accessible, create a place where people can stop and sit, and make some changes that will appeal to children.

Parking: Relocate existing carparks and convert the four car parks on Avon Street converted to P60. This will increase the number of carparks in the town centre from 50 to 54 P60 parks, plus 3 accessible parks and 2 taxi parks within 2-5 minutes walking from the main shopping area.

Bike lane connection

The changes planned on The Parade through the main shopping centre have been designed to cohesively link and complement the bike lane improvements that have been completed.

The design has a marked path that will connect with the lanes north and south of the shops for people who want to safely and slowly bike or scoot into or through the shopping centre.

Together, these changes will allow people of all ages and abilities to ride more safely all the way along The Parade if they want to. They will also make it clear where people should ride or expect to see bikes, and where pedestrians have priority.

For detailed information, and history on the safety improvements project please visit The Parade – Transport Projects.

Public engagement

We’ve developed the plans over the past few months in collaboration with people who live and run businesses in the area.

These phases included a wider community drop-in session, and three working group sessions. The working group was comprised of representatives from the Island Bay Residents’ Association, community groups and business owners.

9 April 2022 community drop-In session, with 250 comments- seeking feedback about the values, concerns and suggestions for improvements while concentrating and appreciating wider themes of Island Bay’s merits.

Community drop-in findings (68KB PDF)

27 April 2022 first working group meeting: discussed the groups interest, purpose, project scope, collated and synthesised all the information gathered at the community drop-in, and prioritised the main objectives for the upgrades:

History and character of Island Bay, visible and relatable (reflected in town centre by seeing value in heritage and history); brought to life through murals and street art.
Celebrate unique identity of Island Bay (Diversity, History, Communities)
Make more inviting and a destination to pause improving the quality of public space with furniture and tidy amenities.
Lighting throughout the streets is seen to be insufficient and critical.
Upgrade buildings (enhance/painting)
Increase safety and access within the town centre. (Surfaces, crossings, hazards)
Assisting businesses (such as signage, promotion, events)
Mindful of future development- such as intensification and infrastructure.
Ensuring the town centre functions well.

Design influence document (332KB PDF)

9 May 2022 second working group meeting: looked into the history of Island Bay and completed a Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design Report (CPTED) (3MB PDF). Furthered design drivers exploring the look and feel of the public space by focusing on 3 key subjects:

Identity, Character + History
Safety, Access + Inviting
Promoting Business + Providing for the Future

These working groups confirmed opportunities as:

Add to the surrounding vegetation and amenity of the space.
Celebrate heritage, mana whenua, and place of community.
Work with or replace furniture.
Active frontages with public space with amenity and lighting.
Heritage areas relationship to public space.
Create new spots for gathering and recreation.
Updated lighting to create safer spaces
Ensure town centre provides for the future intensification of Island Bay.

The working groups confirmed the key moves as:

Focusing on the visibility and interest of the Library and entry to community centre.
Increase public space at the Library, in front of the west shops, and enhance the existing space next to 138 The Parade.
Welcome entrance into the main shopping area
Consider the amenity, planting and visibility of Avon Street and Medway Street intersections
Safe access for pedestrians at driveways and build-outs onto The Parade, and the pedestrian access laneway.
Enhance streetscape build-outs with vegetation and signage/placemaking.

In the third working group meeting the Urban Design team will provide pre-design plans and sketches with more specific locations and upgrades.

2 June 2022: The third and final working group meeting covered the findings of the previous meeting, the public survey and presented pre-design plans and themes.

Survey data summary (115KB PDF)

Findings of the second working group:

“Promoting Businesses and Providing for the Future” identified that spill-out areas and multi-use spaces will provide the most resolved outcome.
“Safety, Accessibility and Inviting” looks to surface treatments and inviting spaces (seating, stopping and catered to families).
“History, Identity and Character” will best be addressed with Art/Murals and inviting spaces, where narrative is important.
Other categories of display boards, lighting and play spaces can be integrated where appropriate. Most lighting concerns will be addressing the CPTED findings.
Display boards can to the character and amenity of Island Bay Village.
Play spaces can be integrated in the stopping points or spill-out areas using brief inviting elements.

Summary of working group findings (91KB PDF)

From these, the PSD team provided a draft amenity plan, surface treatment scheme, and art/signage/placemaking location map. Each plan covered potential quantities and locations for seating, lighting, vegetation, other furniture, murals, narrative opportunities, signage, and special surface treatment areas.
The following captures the suggestions of the working group:

The idea of a Natural style for improvements is welcomed, although ‘modern village’ might be more fitting. Avoid contrast with Heritage;
Murals are of a strong interest- retain existing;
Surface treatments focus on light concrete (potentially seashell aggregate);
Information signage in a couple of specific areas;
Bespoke unique cycleracks;
Seating should be cut back. Few bespoke versions with the rest being standard;
Lighting important down the laneway and uplighting to trees encouraged;
Event space welcomed;
Any pavers should be limited and targeted to specific areas;
Look into a motif to replicate across the Village Centre and beyond;
Use historic/heritage references throughout Village Centre;
No further comment on planter beds or raised planters.

Island Bay mural paintings

As part of these works, we are livening up Island Bay with murals.

Experienced local muralist Gina Kiel painted the public wharepaku on the corner of The Parade and Medway Street in the first stage of these works.

For more information on this mural read the Our Wellington story: Mural brings colourful vibes to Island Bay parade.

Local artist Greta Menzies also painted a colourful mural, with the help from senior students at sland Bay Primary and St Francis de Sales for a laneway connecting their schools, between The Parade and Clyde Street. Read the Our Wellington story: Mural brings students' imagination to life in Island Bay.