Dunedin is being urged to lead the way as Auckland eyes an ambitious new plan to develop its port area.
Dunedin businessman Ian Taylor, speaking at this week’s Dunedin City Council public forum, urged city councillors to seize the moment and back plans for a $20 million bridge to the waterfront.
The investment would encourage the Government to also back the city’s waterfront vision, which was "just perfect" for the $3 billion regional economic development fund, Mr Taylor said.
"They are just waiting for us to put this argument forward.
"We have to send that signal that we are going to do this," he said.
The council’s draft 10-year plan included a preferred option to build the $20 million bridge, linking the Steamer Basin to the rest of the inner city, or a cheaper $10 million alternative design.
Mr Taylor supported an architectural bridge, and believed the decision was the most important the city had ever been asked to make.
It would draw a "line in the sand" following the closure of the Hillside workshops, Invermay, Cadbury and, most recently, the Fortune Theatre, he said.
The city needed to continue to invest to grow and attract high value jobs, especially given the competition it faced further north, he believed.
In Auckland, a new concept plan for the redevelopment of the city’s container port was presented to Auckland Council this week by architectural firm Archimedia.
The vision featured everything from beaches, a canal and a lagoon to a Maori cultural centre, apartments and offices, a hospitality strip and even a new stadium.
And, in Christchurch, attention was again turning to the prospect of a roofed stadium, costing up to $500 million, which some feared could compete with Dunedin’s established venue.
Mr Taylor told councillors Dunedin’s advantage was the city was united behind the waterfront plan put forward by Damien van Brandenburg late last year.
"That simply does not happen anywhere else in the country, and the country has noticed.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
Funding for the bridge would be discussed during deliberations on the 10-year plan later this month, and the city has been encouraged to apply for a slice of the regional economic development fund by September.
The council is also working on governance options to oversee waterfront development in Dunedin, one of which was a new waterfront agency to direct progress, as Wellington had done.
No decisions on the mechanism would be made until after councillors decided on the bridge, council community and planning group manager Nicola Pinfold said yesterday.
