$1m fund proposal slammed

A $1 million urban renewal fund expected to be bankrolled by prominent Timaru developers has been labelled ‘‘a bit of cheek’’.

Ratepayers may also be asked to contribute to the fund, proposed by the Timaru Urban Renaissance Network (TURN), if it gets the goahead.

The idea was floated in TURN’s submission on the resource consent application for the $42 million Bayhill development.

The proposal seeks to demolish the 104-year-old Hydro Grand Hotel and replace it with a hotel, apartment and corporate office complex.

If that proposal was to be given the green light, the project’s developers should have to contribute $1 million to an urban renewal fund, according to TURN founders Fliss and Ian Butcher.

However, one of the project’s developers said the pair were living in ‘‘fantasy land’’.

In their submission, the Butchers say the Timaru District Council should assist TURN and other ‘‘appropriate entities’’ to set up a trust that would administer the Timaru Urban Renewal Fund.

That fund would initially be bankrolled to the tune of $1 million by Bayhill developers Allan Booth and Alan Pye.

Public consultation would later determine if ratepayers should contribute.

Ian Butcher said there needed to be financial acknowledgement of the ‘‘detrimental effects’’ the development would have on downtown Timaru.

He believed the proposed design was ‘‘over-bloated’’ and ‘‘overscaled’’, which would have a negative impact on the rest of the CBD.

The fund would be administered by a trust of volunteers, and would be used to ‘‘make downtown better’’, he said.

He did not believe the fund would clash with work already under way on the future of the CBD.

Economic development agency Aoraki Development has been given a mandate by the council to explore options for the CBD, and how it could be managed in the future.

When asked if requiring a developer to contribute to such a fund would set a precedent for future developments, Butcher said ‘‘probably’’.

‘‘But how many other $42 million developments are there going to be in Timaru?’’

Fliss Butcher said TURN strongly supported public consultation, and members of the public would be asked if they believed ratepayers should contribute to the fund or not.

She acknowledged the request to establish a fund was unlikely to get the tick of approval.

‘‘It’s probably rare that it will happen.’’

However, they were entitled to ask’’, she said.

Booth said the Butchers were living in ‘‘fantasy land’’. ‘‘It’s just a bit of cheek,’’ he said. ‘‘We won’t do that, it wouldn’t be morally right, in my mind.’’

He believed forcing a developer to contribute to such a fund would set a dangerous precedent.

‘‘I simply discarded it as soon as I read it.

‘‘Who are they to be telling me, or telling anyone, what to do?’’

Timaru District Council group manager regulatory services Chris English said the council would not comment on any aspect of the resource consent application until the process was completed.

The majority of the 19 submitters on the application were opposed to the development.

However, Booth was still confident the project would be given the green light.

A hearing for the application is expected to take place in front of a commissioner on October 27. ‘‘quite