Te Ara Ātea – our new Library and Community Centre

Planning and design is now well advanced for the public spaces at the heart of Rolleston’s new town centre.

The Council’s design team expects to lodge resource consents before the end of the year for the first stage of the project, which will include the library, town square and key roading elements.

A central element of the plan is the open public space that will connect the town centre to Te Ara Ātea – the library and community centre.

*Check out the Rolleston Town Centre map on the top right of this page.

The area has been designed so that people can move freely between the indoor environment of Te Ara Ātea and outdoor spaces that encourage community gathering, activities, recreation and reflection.

A main promenade will run between Tennyson Street entrance and the Wordsworth Street extension, offering pedestrians a leisurely walk through landscaped gardens, comfortable seating areas, grassy ‘urban islands’, outdoor kids’ educational zones and even a vege garden.

Te Ara Ātea will open onto a spacious town square which will provide areas for civic and community gatherings, markets, events, performances and informal community interaction.

Among the distinctive features of the town square are a suspended overhead lighting system to create a unique night-time environment, raised gardens with seating, shade sails and water features. There are also spaces for tables and chairs outside the proposed hospitality and retail premises adjacent to the library and community centre.

As well as pedestrian space, the promenade will also accommodate cyclists and limited service access for vehicles. Initially part of the promenade and laneways may be constructed with asphalt, with permanent decorative paving installed once later stages of building construction are completed.

Plans for the roading network around the new Rolleston town centre reveal a streetscape that is people-centred.

*View the cross sections for the streetscape at the top right corner of this page.

The roads around Te Ara Ātea and the adjacent civic and commercial spaces will be predominantly low-speed, attractively landscaped, cycle and pedestrian-friendly, and with provision for both on and off-street car parking.

Consultation on the original Rolleston town centre master plan, and subsequent Long-Term Plans, confirmed the development of a low-speed thoroughfare along the Wordsworth Street extension, which will run through the commercial and retail areas adjacent to Te Ara Ātea, connecting from Moore Street to Markham Way at Tennyson Street.

Retaining through traffic helps ensure the area remains active and vibrant. The street will be sympathetic with the wider town centre design, including wide berms to accommodate tree planting and greenery, small areas of garden, attractive lighting, seating and street furniture.

Pedestrian pathways will be generous, with attractive paving, and the 6.4 metre road width is designed to accommodate two lanes of traffic. The design will incorporate traffic calming in the form of raised crossings in concrete pavers, which encourage vehicles to reduce speeds at locations where pedestrian cross the road.

Car parking is provided along the road, and there is also right-angle parking opposite the Scouts hall, alongside the reserve.

Tennyson Street, between Moore Street and Rolleston Drive, will undergo a major transformation – becoming Rolleston’s new high street.

It will also be a 30km/hr zone, with attractive landscaping and street furniture, traffic calming features and wide pathways.

Te Ara Ātea, the Rolleston Library and Community Centre, will be the landmark feature on the western side of Tennyson Street, along with the adjacent commercial and retail areas extending towards Rolleston Drive.

This will be complemented by additional commercial development on the on the eastern side, including retail and hospitality premises already under development by private developer Jatinder Developments.

Multiple car parking options will be available in the vicinity of the town centre. On-street car parking will be available on both Wordsworth Street and Tennyson Street. The Council will also develop off-street parking at the Moore Street end of Rolleston Reserve (See plan C1 - 76 spaces), behind the shops on the eastern side of Tennyson Street (C2 - 45 spaces), and on two sites on the southern side of the Wordsworth Street extension (C3 - 137 and C4 - 124 spaces).

The name means: The unobstructed trail to the world and beyond.

Traditionally the Rolleston area was part of a network of ara tawhito, ancient trails. Navigating across the landscape of Ngā Pākihi Whakatekateka o Waitaha, the Canterbury Plains took skill and planning. Our old people created these trails, marking them on an otherwise flat landscape. The network of trails led them not only across the plains but more importantly from mahinga kai site to mahinga kai site. Much like the story of Te Maru/Mauru and the Rakaia Gorge talked about in the design work, Te Ara Ātea creates a pathway.

Te Ara Ātea can be translated as the trails to the world, the pathway into space, the unobstructed trail. It acknowledges the location of the library in the network of trails, it also reinforces the pathways into life long learning and exploration. The word ‘ara’ means path, trail and route. It also refers to a line of weaving and is the verb to wake or to rise up. Ātea means to be free of obstruction, to be clear. It is also the name of the ceremonial courtyard, marae ātea, on the marae. The purpose of the marae ātea is as the place to debate and challenge. It is one of the thresholds that one crosses going onto the marae. Ātea also means outer space. The name Te Ara Ātea therefore carries with it the notion of pushing out into the beyond, exploring, navigating and challenging.

If one accepts that Te Ara Ātea is an unobstructed trail, then the facility and the surrounding facilities become much like the mahinga kai sites of old. Each has a purpose and a resource that should be cared for, nurtured and harvested in a sustainable way. Each becomes a marker on the trail.

Ko te pae tawhiti whāia kia tata, ko te pae tata whakamaua kia tīna.

Seek to bring distant horizons closer, and sustain and maintain those that have been arrived at.