City block: Who says Invercargill folk aren't engaged?

Public offers up options for vacant Invercargill city land on the corner of Tay St and Kevin St.

The biggest reaction to a story to date in our fortnight old Southland Tribune tenure has been around what to do with the vacant land on the corner of Kevin St and Tay St in Invercargill.

The Invercargill City Council will next month ponder whether to sell or retain that piece land.

It was initially earmarked for Southern Institiute of Technology apartments, but the new SIT board pulled the pin on those plans.

At a council meeting last week Invercargill mayor Nobby Clark said they were now faced with a decision as to whether to sell the land or retain it for strategic purposes.

The topic prompted a flurry of ideas from the public. It’s an encouraging sign that the city folk are actually engaged and care about what is happening in their city.

Among the suggestions for the space were mini golf, an artificial green for futsal, touch, netball during lunch breaks, a playground, space for food trucks, an art space. The list went on.

Clark isn’t surprised there has been a lot of ideas floated.

He says the first step is for the council to decide if it wants to retain the piece of land or sell it.

He doesn’t want to pre-empt that decision but acknowledges retaining it for the moment is probably in the best interests of the city.

That would buy some time around what the best future use for the space might be. Whether it be an art gallery, or a potential space for a new Civic Administration building for the council etc.

Clark agrees apartment living might still turn out to be a good use for that space.

Introducing more inner-city apartment living for young professionals and retired people, who are happy to do away with the garden etc, could help in the quest for more inner-city vibrancy beyond just the 8-5pm type office hours.

“That is an option to think about,” Clark says.

“There could also be a joint council approach with the [Southland] District Council….It might be that the District Council who have people spread around the place might want to join us there and share some [office] services. Maybe the ground floor could be retail or a new art gallery.”

Clark says retaining the land, rather than selling now, would at least give the council more power to work with developers around what they want from that piece of land long-term.

“You could end up with something on the corner of that block that detracts from what we’ve tried to do with the inner-city development.”

Clark suggests it might be that the council retains it for the next three years while the priority is to get the museum built and other parts of the CBD streetscapes and beautification sorted. After that was done the council could potentially decide what the best long-term use for the corner of Kelvin St and Tay St might be.

In the meantime, the council, if they do retain the land, will need to decide how to use the space so it doesn’t sit abandoned and become an “eyesore”.

“Would you put an inner-city playground in there? Some say no because it would be too dark and cold.

“Do you make it a green space where people can sit and have lunch? Do you make it an art space? There’s lots of options we’ve got to work our way through.”

The land is currently owned by a holding company attached to the city block development which includes the council as one of the key investors.