Councillors not keen on 66 Dee St play hub

“It is a lot of money. Is this a fit? Is this ideal? Or is this an attempt to make it fit?”

Councillors have raised concerns about a proposed play hub attraction at the vacant 66 Dee St site.

Invercargill city councillors have largely poured cold water over the idea of developing the vacant 66 Dee St site into a new city centre play attraction.

Local Play Advocate Dr Damian Puddle delivered a report to councillors on Tuesday which outlined options to get public feedback on around the $4.9m that’s budgeted for urban play development.

In the report Puddle identified 66 Dee St as a site for a new inner city play hub that would attract people to the city centre.

Although at Tuesday’s meeting many of the councillors and mana whenua representatives raised concerns about the proposed 66 Dee St site.

The site is owned by the council and sits between the Invercargill Public Library and the building currently occupied by Hubbers Emporium.

Cr Steve Broad questioned the size of the 66 Dee St site for such a hub - amongst other things.

“I noticed that [66 Dee St] was not even a quarter of the recommended size in the [feasibility study].

“[It has] limited sunlight, the surrounding wall safety, other potential safety concerns the community may have around its location.

“It is a lot of money. Is this a fit? Is this ideal? Or is this an attempt to make it fit?” Broad said.

Dr Puddle responded saying any city centre location was a challenge.

“We don’t just have an amazing amount of space in the city centre that’s conducive to delivering this,” Puddle said.

Broad asked why the Otepuni Gardens had not been selected as a potential site.

Dr Puddle said Environment Southland’s flood and drainage bylaw prevents construction of infrastructure within 7m of that space.

Mayor Nobby Clark was another who voiced his concern around the preferred 66 Dee St site.

“I have some issues around 66 Dee St. One is the size.

“There is still the future of the Hubbers Emporium building. What happens if someone flattens that and uses the site for something that is not compatible to a play area?

“I think the closeness to the Grand Hotel clients is a serious issue as well for children playing there.”

Clark suggested that some thought should be given to the corner of Tay St and Kelvin St, which is currently vacant and is part of the Invercargill Central Limited block.

Although Clark also pointed out that the council may need to push the budgeted $4.9m out further in the Long-Term Plan.

The council is grappling with rising costs and is trying to limit the impact on ratepayers.

“One thing we will have to do when we got out for consultation, we will have to say to our community that we’ve got urban play, we’ve got an art gallery, we’ve got Rugby Park yet to resolve. Which should we do in what order?

“A lot of the advice I’m getting back from the community at the moment is that we should focus on doing one project at a time and get it sorted. Then move on to the next one, and then the next one,” Mayor Clark said.

Cr Ria Bond said she had not supported the urban play project since joining the council and still did not support it.

“The reason being is that we have faced some pretty tough financial times in this country. We’ve been in recessions and out of them.

“My concern is the location at Dee St; for me it is a complete danger area… We have somewhere between 150 parks and reserves in this city with over 3000 hectares of land. It mind-boggles me why we couldn’t be fitting that hub somewhere else on just the fringe of the city, like the Gala St, Queens Dr area.”

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Many councillors, and mana whenua representatives Pania Coote and Evelyn Cook, spoke about their preference to distribute the budgeted $4.9m for urban play across wider parts of Invercargill and Bluff. Rather than most of it going to an inner city play attraction.

“I am really quite attracted to the distributed programme because I know that continues to highlight the importance of play in our suburbs,” Cook said.

“I know that we are trying to activate the centre of the city, but I’m not sure that we’ve got the balance right with this.”

When the matter was put to the vote it was decided to go out to public consultation with the council’s preferred being a distributed approach throughout the city.

That would mean a scaled back inner city play offering rather than the bold play attraction that had been suggested.

Mayor Clark, Cr Bond, and Cr Grant Dermody voted against the motion.

Clark and Bond raised financial concerns, while Dermody earlier in the meeting felt the council should be factoring it into a wider recreation strategy, rather than zeroing in on “play”.

Public will be asked for its feedback from March 13 to April 13.