The Waitaki District Council has approved additional spending on the redevelopment of carparking near the Oamaru farmers market.
The first stage for new parking, in front of Scotts Brewery, and under the Oamaru Harbour area concept development plan, will proceed at a cost of $880,000 after the council agreed this week to dip into the harbour endowment fund for an extra $145,600.
It will have to be paid back.
However, the second stage of the urban park development under the plan and further carparking on the south side of Scotts Brewery, including a new exit to Waterfront Rd, has been pared back for now.
The council’s harbour area subcommittee had already heard on August 13 the costs for the full concept could not be fully realised and dealing with the potential for contaminated soil at the former New Zealand Railways goods yard site was one factor.
The council’s project manager Erik van der Spek said they could not "just seal over" what was there.
Potential contaminated material including asbestos would have to be excavated, covered at the site, or removed completely, "a very costly process".
Mr van der Spek said the council’s contractor was the sole tenderer and he was confident they had the capacity to stick to budget.
"But we still need to make sure we get value out of that," he said.
Realising the entire concept would have cost $1.5million but it included aspects like a mobile stage "and things that weren’t unable to be fitted into the original $340,000 target."
Consequently the parking aspect had been broken up into two stages.
"We always understood we’d have a shortfall in so far as our funding to do the whole lot," Mr van der Spek said.
The committee subsequently resolved to recommend to council it:
- reduce the scope of the parking aspect for now;
- seek an additional $145,600 for the first parking area;
- reduce the planned landscaping scope for the corner of Wansbeck and Tyne Sts.
At the full council meeting on Tuesday, the council voted 7-3 in favour.
Cr Tim Blackler, who had previously cited the prior council resolution to be prudent around its use of Local
Government Funding Agency money, made good on his promise to vote against.
Crs Guy Percival and John McCone did the same.
"We have far more use for our funds," Cr McCone said.
Mayor Gary Kircher told councillors he was reluctant to defer aspects of the project because "when will we get back there?".
"This is a project that has been going on for pretty much a decade ... this has been in the long-term plan for a number of years, and substantially the money is coming from the government," he said.
"It’s a good investment in the community."
Mr van der Spek said staff were confident the February 2025 deadline to spend the $335,000 of Three Waters Better Off funding dedicated to to the project would be met.
