19 HONIARA Local Planning Scheme 2015

PART B: PLANNING FRAMEWORK AND STANDARDS

5. The Future of Honiara

5.1 Honiara’s Urban Visions The Honiara City Council’s 5-Year Strategic Plan 2014-2018 stipulates the following vision for the city:

“ The City of Honiara is acknowledged as a clean, safe, harmonious, environmentally responsible, prosperous and resilient capital city providing a high quality of life for its multi-cultural community and its visitors.”

The above vision statement was further workshopped with Ministries and stakeholders to develop a vision relevant to this LPS. This is depicted below and it represents the shared values and desires of the Ministries and the public.

Six Visions for Honiara’s Urban Future

Vision 1 - Cultural and Economic Hub Honiara will be the cultural capital of Solomon Islands. It will be the meeting place for all Provinces and will be culturally diverse to cater for people from different countries.

The city will showcase the heritage, art and culture of different parts of the Solomon Islands and there is mutual respect between different tribes, islands and villages. Honiara city will provide the essential services, including health, university and Government headquarters to service the people from other Provinces who decide to live in Honiara. It will also accommodate a range of economic functions, including an international port, oil companies, tourism and other secondary and tertiary industries. The vision is to allow these activities to co-exist within the city. Vision 2 - Liveable City Honiara will be a liveable city and will offer a range of positive attributes that enhance the quality of life of the residents and the visitors. The land use within the City will be structured so that different industrial, residential and commercial activities can operate without impacting on each other and the City can function orderly and efficiently. The city will have physical connections between the hill and the sea. There are well located and accessible public open spaces to support social interactions. These spaces are well managed by HCC and relevant authorities and are clean and safe for all users. These spaces are designed with good quality landscaping and trees to improve the environmental amenity of the users. Extensive landscaping is provided as well as adequate infrastructure and utility services. The city will support good quality architecture, which creates an attractive streetscape character and a unique identity for the city.

1

2

20 HONIARA Local Planning Scheme 2015

Vision 3 - City for Local and International Tourists Tourism precincts are centrally located to facilitate tourism activities, including retail, restaurants and other tourism related functions. The precincts showcase the best of the Solomon Islands, including heritage, art and culture, as well as its natural landscape, the river system, the hills and the sea. A network of pedestrian-friendly footpaths is available within the City Centre to connect to key activity areas and these footpaths are safe and well-constructed.

Vision 4 - City with Efficient Transport Traffic within the City Centre is well-managed with adequate roads, car parking facilities and public transport to allow efficient movement of people, vehicles, freight and other activities. The main streets of the City Centre are pedestrian-friendly and have good interface with the activities along the streets. Other streets are well organised and accessible by public transport.

Vision 5 - City with Multiple Nodes and Centres To minimise congestion within the City Centre, neighbourhood centres are established outside of the CBD to provide the local residents with the essential daily services. These neighbourhood centres are serviced by public transport. Densities within these centres are usually higher to reflect the cluster of activities and concentration of services and people.

Vision 6 - City of Resilience Honiara is a coastal city affected by various natural events, notably flooding, storm surge and land slide. The land use pattern will recognise these constraints and specify areas where developments are not appropriate due to the exposure to environmental risks.

5.2 Honiara City Wide Structure Plan The Honiara Structure Plan, including the City Centre Structure Plan, (Figures 5.1 and 5.2 below) depicts the desired future land use pattern of Honiara based on the Visions identified above. It seeks to integrate land use and transport and incorporates the following strategies to address the Vision in order to guide the future growth of the city: Vision 1 - Cultural and Economic Hub Strategies:

x Facilitate a range of economic developments within the City Centre; x Implement land use controls to allow industrial, port, tourism, institutional and other

important economic functions to co-exist within the City Centre;

3

4

5

6

21 HONIARA Local Planning Scheme 2015

Vision 2 – Liveable City Strategies:

x Strengthen and build capacities of other centres for local market, retail, educational, recreational and potentially some employment opportunities. This seeks to relieve pressure on the City Centre, reduce traffic and allow the City Centre to restructure itself to cater for local as well as other international industries such as tourism.

x These growth centres include White River, Kukum and Naha. These centres should be the focus of future growth. A range of medium-density residential developments should be encouraged within the centres. These residential functions should be supported by community facilities including local markets, retail shops, local parks/sport fields, primary/secondary schools.

x Undertake public domain and streetscape improvements within the centres to implement the local amenities.

Vision 3 - City for Local and International Tourists Strategies:

x Concentrate tourism infrastructure and developments along the foreshore, within the Point Cruz tourism precinct.

x Maximise opportunities to create public open spaces within the City Centre. x When Strategic Sites become available, undertake a master planning exercise to maximise

open space and foreshore access.

Vision 4 - City with Efficient Transport Strategies:

x Undertake design and develop the East-West Link and Bypass Road. Ensure the design is coordinated with the design and scale of the buildings along the roads.

x Identify opportunities for stand-alone car park structures within the City Centre. x Redevelop Mendana Avenue as a boulevard to be landscaped and upgraded with

pedestrian facilities. Ensure buildings facing Mendana Ave are designed to provide good presentation to the streetscape and address the public domain.

Vision 5 - City with Multiple Nodes and Centres Strategies:

x Undertake planning and design for the 3 strategic centres identified in the Structure Plan, including White River, Naha and Kukum.

x Identify available land for market structures within these centres to strengthen the retail sectors within the centres.

x Encourage medium-density developments within these centres.

Vision 6 - City of Resilience Strategies:

x Ensure developments within risk areas are subject to rigorous assessments on the potential impacts of the environmental risks on the assets and the users of the developments.

22 HONIARA Local Planning Scheme 2015

23 HONIARA Local Planning Scheme 2015

24 HONIARA Local Planning Scheme 2015

5.3 Strategic Sites for Urban Revitalisation A number of existing industrial sites in the City Centre will potentially become redundant in the future once the industrial activities relocate to other areas outside of the City Centre. These sites are large, centrally located and have foreshore access. They provide important opportunities to be redeveloped as a modern mixed use precinct that would become the heart of the City, leading to structural reform of the City. Redevelopment of these sites, identified below as the ‘key sites’ in the following diagram, must include extensive areas of public open space for the local residents and for tourists. A master plan should be prepared before issuing development approvals to ensure that the overall site layout and design would deliver maximum public benefit and infrastructure that would benefit all users of the city centre.

25 HONIARA Local Planning Scheme 2015

5.4 LPS Objectives In response to the challenges identified in the study, the vision and the Structure Plan strategies, this LPS has been prepared to achieve the following objectives:

x To allow orderly and economic use of land;

x To preserve land essential for public infrastructure development, including roads, electricity supply, water supply, schools and public open spaces;

x To identify opportunities for future public projects that would improve the quality of life of the residents and facilitate economic activities in Honiara;

x To identify areas that are subject to environmental risks and to ensure developments within these areas respond to the environmental risks;

x To preserve heritage buildings in Honiara;

x To provide design guidelines on subdivision and informal settlement areas;

x To provide design guidelines and standards for different types of development;

x To provide an urban design framework for the Honiara City Centre;