ORC signature not vital on waterfront MOU

The Otago Regional Council twice declined to sign the agreement to advance Dunedin’s waterfront development plan, but the decision will not impede the project, Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull says.

The ORC was the noticeable omission from parties signing the memorandum of understanding to progress the project on Thursday, although ORC chairman Stephen Woodhead attended and reiterated his support for the concept.

It was felt the ORC, as a waterfront landowner and with regulatory responsibilities for the coastal environment, could not be a party to the formal agreement, he said.

Dave Cull

Yesterday, Mr Cull said the city council had tried to get the ORC to sign up to the agreement, but understood its position.

"Part of the appeal of our application to the Provincial Growth Fund is that we have all the stakeholders in consensus about the vision.

"We’ve got a letter on record from the ORC supporting it. It would have been good to have them on the MOU, because it’s a better look going to the Government, so we were keen, but we realise why they can’t," he said.

The ORC’s stance differed from that of the city council, which also had regulatory responsibilities for allowing consent for new structures.

But Mr Cull said the DCC had already decided it would use independent commissioners for any hearings.

It had also held preliminary talks with the Government about "calling in" the project and taking over decision-making responsibilities, if it was deemed to be of "national significance", Mr Cull said.

The ORC could have adopted the same approach, but that was "their call", he said.

Their decision did not make it more difficult for the project to proceed, he said.

"I don’t think so ... that MOU is just a preliminary document anyway, showing good faith on the parties that are there and who will be much more involved than the ORC would be, in any case."

That included the Port Otago group, owned by the ORC, which had significant property interests on the waterfront, and had signed the agreement, he said.