Consent for cable car building applied for
DCC public forum told of next steps
A TRUST planning to return cable cars to Dunedin’s High St says its planned building in Mornington Park, the first tangible sign of the project, should be in place soon.
Dunedin Heritage Light Rail Trust spokesman Neville Jemmett said the trust had paid a deposit on a building and negotiated a lease for three heritage cable cars.
The organisation had a lease at Mornington Park and building consent, and had its resource consent application in.
Once consent was granted, it would only take about a month until the building was in place.
The trust went to a Dunedin City Council public forum on Tuesday.
It had hoped to get the building in place by late last year, but consent issues had taken longer than expected.
Mr Jemmett told councillors the trust intended initially to display the cable cars, to be leased on a ‘‘peppercorn’’ lease from the Ferrymead Heritage Park in Christchurch, in the building on Mornington Park.
He said the building housing the cable cars would be temporary, and the trust had architectural plans for a larger cable car house to be built later in the same place.
At the public forum, the trust said the council could assist the project with funding where appropriate, and by approving a request to use High St and part of Eglinton Rd for a dual cable car line when funding was in place.
The trust also suggested a memorandum of understanding on building the cable car route, and assistance from ‘‘experienced council staff’’.
Council resource consent manager Alan Worthington said yesterday the application for resource consent had been received on March 21.
He believed it would be processed within the 20 working day maximum.
Mr Jemmett said once consent came through, the building on which the trust had placed a deposit could be brought south from Christchurch.
That would take two weeks.
While that was happening, concrete would be poured for the building’s foundation.
From the time of the consent approval to the time the building was ready ‘‘should be no more than a month’’.
Once the building was in place, the trust would work towards raising funds to build the full cable car house, with motors and cables.
The cost of the whole project, as per 2012 estimates, is $19 million.
‘‘To get the big money in fundraising, we need to be into stage two,’’ Mr Jemmett said.
Once the temporary Mornington Park building was in place it would be possible to show funders ‘‘we actually mean business’’.
david.loughrey@odt.co.nz