Restraint urged in city’s 10year plan

THE Dunedin City Council has been urged to lower its sights as it considers a 10year, $850 million vision for the city’s future.

The call came from several submitters who spoke on the opening day of a week of public hearings yesterday.

Among those calling for restraint was Dunedin businessman Russell Lund, who owns the Loan and Mercantile building on the edge of the Steamer Basin.

Mr Lund, speaking via conference call, told the hearing the development of the waterfront would be good for the city, but warned the council risked a cost blowout if it committed to so many big projects at once.

In its draft 10year plan, the council was proposing to spend up to $20 million on an architectural bridge to the waterfront, another $60 million on a central city upgrade and $20 million on improvements in the tertiary sector.

Mr Lund said the escalating cost of work to complete the Otago Peninsula shared pathway showed what could go wrong, and problems would be guaranteed to emerge on at least one of the city’s other major projects.

That could result in the cost of an architectural bridge to the waterfront jumping from $20 million to $25 million or $30 million, he said.

‘‘I think the city is trying to do too many things at once over these next few years.’’

A cable stay bridge would be cheaper and more in keeping with the rest of the waterfront, as what eventually developed there was unlikely to match the ‘‘florid’’ bridge design being con sidered, Mr Lund said.

Dunedin resident Greg Sligo told the hearing the council needed to begin setting aside ‘‘significant’’ amounts of money to pay for the costs of climate change, such as the eventual managed retreat from the Ocean Beach area.

That should be a priority over ‘‘sexy, nicetohave projects’’ such as the waterfront, and the affordability of projected rates, totalling 58% over 10 years, should be reconsidered, he argued.

Leanne Veitch also voiced her ‘‘strong dissent’’ to the 10year plan, saying councillors were not being responsible with ratepayers’ money and urged ‘‘common sense’’ to prevail.

Spending in lowlying areas, at a time when they were under threat from climate change, did not make sense, and nor did investment in cycleways or outdoor furniture in a cold and hilly city, she said.

‘‘These rates rises will affect everyone detrimentally. It will make ordinary Dunedin people poorer in their pockets, at a time when wages are buying less in real dollars than ever before.’’