Stage one of Riverside Park should be completed this summer, the Vincent Community Board heard yesterday.
Central Otago District Council project manager Christina Martin said the project whanau had expanded to include board member Jayden Cromb, construction and design team members, council staff and Riverside Park trustees.
The revised plan accepted by the board at the meeting was part of a phased approach that would reduce costs and create less disruption to the public.
It would include a toilet block, shelter and seating, an area for food trucks, bike parks, and a tool station in a plaza with a walkway down to a pontoon.
A glow-in-the-dark resin design would be embedded in the concrete on the shared pathway.
In January, Alexandra Miners Village and Riverside Park Trust member Rory Mclellan told the board after more than 12 years of discussions the project just needed to get going.
Access to the river and public toilets were the first priorities.
Yesterday, he said the revised design achieved the trust’s intention to open up the area and take the town centre down to the river.
"The main thing was to open up the river to the town ... and support what we’ve got to offer, especially the businesses operating near the river, [and] to try to beautify the bottom end of Tarbert St," he said.
The trust was in it for the long haul and would keep working on different parts of the overall plan to make it better, including linking cycle paths to the area.
"I know it will be the catalyst for a lot of other great things to happen in the area."
Ms Martin said the project was on budget with $1,275,948 of the $1.46 million cost secured and more funding applications in progress.
To date $385,790 had been spent.
Council parks and reserves manager Gordon Bailey said trees would be removed along the river front from the bridge rather than just the width of Tarbert St as originally planned.
