During his submission on the council’s 10-year plan, University of Otago chancellor Royden Somerville said the university supported the council’s vision and the optimism in the 10-year plan.
The university supported the plan’s upgrade of both the central city and the tertiary precinct, Dr Somerville said.
Throughout the hearings this week, a number of submitters had asked the councillors why they were proposing to upgrade the tertiary area when the university did not pay rates on its academic buildings.
In an answer to a question from Cr Kate Wilson, Dr Somerville said the university had spent a significant amount of its own money upgrading the landscape and public streetscape around the campus.
As a public institution it was important to the university it remained accessible to the public and invested in the surrounding public space, he said.