Land status muddies housing
Habitat for Humanity is planning to land-swap part of the Kew Bowl site, set aside for a social housing development, because of high construction costs.
In 2019, Habitat for Humanity for Invercargill purchased the Kew Bowl property from Invercargill City Council for its housing project.
The group had planned to swap a small section of the site with the city council but it has since been found that the land might still be a public domain.
Confusion about the land status of the site has led to consultation between Habitat for Humanity, the Invercargill City Council and the Department of Conservation (DOC).
Habitat for Humanity Invercargill general manager Paul Searancke said it planned to swap a small section of the land originally designed to be the entrance and a carpark.
The proposal would be downsized because of an increase in the cost of materials following import tax increases and the lack of global supply amid the Covid19 pandemic, creating changes to the original plans, he said.
However, what was supposed to be an easy land swap has ended up with a consultation process because that section of land was originally owned by DOC.
That was something that many years ago, in some change in Government from one department to another, didn’t get tidied up at the time, he said.
It was going through a full consultation process about the swap with multiple partners, including iwi.
DOC Murihiku operations manager John McCarroll said records showed that the South Invercargill domain came under the 1881 Public Domains Act in 1885.
Last year, DOC received a request from the Invercargill City Council to work with them to understand the issue, he said.
The first step was to check the land status. Further consultation between DOC, Nga¯ i Tahu and ICC was expected to take place in upcoming months, he said.
Any change to the land status would require ministerial approval.
Council leisure and recreation group manager Steve Gibling said it was approached by Habitat for Humanity with the inquiry in April.
It had engaged with Land Information Services to get a better understanding of the facts, Gibling said.
Once it had understood the facts and got approval from DOC and iwi, it would consult with the public.