The Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony car park is to be upgraded, but it will be costly.
The Waitaki District Council decided to approve the upgrade at a value of $450,000 last week.
Council co-property manager Grant Rhodes said an upgrade of the car park was identified in the Oamaru Harbour plan 2020 and beyond.
The council’s long-term plan was to have funding available in the 2025-26 financial year.
However, at a meeting in September last year the council resolved to approve the acceleration of the car park upgrade and the requirement to bring forward $190,000 of council funding to the 2022-23 year.
An application to the tourism infrastructure fund secured $110,000 to help pay for the upgrade but the project must be finished by the end of October this year to receive the funding.
The remaining funding of about $150,000 would come from the council’s Harbour endowment reserves, which stood at $1.25 million, Mr Rhodes said.
Mr Rhodes wrote in a council report the large car park of 2500sq m was a poorly formed car park which could accommodate tourist buses, camper vans and boat trailers.
He said the purpose of the upgrade was to create a robust and safe long-term asset with low maintenance costs that would meet the parking needs of the colony and other southern harbour users.
Clearance of vegetation, sealing and marking will increase the capacity of the car park and meet the expectation of ratepayers and visitors.
The car park will be lit at night.
Cr Guy Percival questioned the amount of money to pay for a car park, which he said was a huge amount of money.
He felt it was not the best use of council funds.
Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher said fixing the car park solved many issues at one end of the harbour.
