Street front and commercial building redesign in Mogo gets underway

From left: Mogo business owners Ken Bellette and Lorena Granados chat with Ethos Urban’s Daniel Pantelas and Brendan Hoskins. Photo: Supplied.

Mogo residents and business owners have had their first meeting with planning and design consultants from Ethos Urban as the first step in redesigning bushfire-ravaged commercial buildings and the Mogo streetscape.

The stakeholder consultation meetings will take into consideration input and concerns from the Mogo community, including onsite parking, bushfire protection, street-front setbacks, and improved pedestrian flow.

Urban planning and design company Ethos Urban and transport planning company Complete Streets offered pro-bono services to Eurobodalla Shire Council in May this year to help rebuild Mogo businesses after the past summer’s bushfires ravaged the town, while retaining the village’s charm and character.

Business owners on the western side of the Princes Highway see merit in moving shopfronts closer to the street to reduce development costs and improve pedestrian flow.

Eurobodalla Shire Council Mayor Liz Innes said the people of Mogo are looking to their future.

“It’s great to see the village’s business community working with specialist firms and with council to rebuild Mogo to be better than ever,” she said.

Eurobodalla Shire Council’s strategic land use coordinator, Nathan Farnell, said the street-meet exceeded expectations, with Mogo’s business community throwing its support behind the project.

“The quality of the work the consultants are doing is really quite extraordinary,” he said. “They’ve been reviewing the village layout and rebuilding regulations to find ways to reduce the time and cost of rebuilding.

“They want to help this community get through what has been incredibly hard times, using streetscape designs to demonstrate how building constraints can be better handled.”

Mr Farnell said two more stakeholder sessions will be held in coming months, using an online platform.

Ethos Urban’s Brendan Hoskins is encouraging the wider Mogo community to take part in a short online survey on the future look of the village. The survey can be accessed online.