The Invercargill City Council endorsed this week the Bluff Motupohue master plan, which provided concepts for the future development of Bluff, an area described as having strong potential as a vibrant tourism hub for the region.
It identified 11 hubs or precincts in the region to be explored — Bluff gateway entrance hub, Ocean Beach aquaculture precinct, heritage landscape precinct, community recreation precinct, active recreation precinct, Bluff central tourism precinct, commercial precinct, Stirling Point precinct, Bluff Hill Motupohue lookout hub, South Port hub and wider Bluff area.
A working group overseeing the plan met a few times to discuss the feedback from the community and priorities of the proposed plan.
The council’s strategy and policy manager Rhiannon Sutter prepared a report about their conclusions.
The report said the group noted the feedback on the plan was very positive and as result of that, only limited changes were needed.
Some projects were believed to be less feasible or lower priority, such as the heritage trail among the industrial storage units on the waterfront and a temporary kiosk at Stirling Point, she said.
However, the main change was on the gateway hub.
It was initially proposed to be established in a location closer to the Ocean Beach area in Bluff and would include the relocation of the Bluff gateway entrance signage to create a ‘‘stronger point of entry.’’
‘‘The community gave strong messages that they did not want the location of the Bluff sign moved. As a result, the location of the Gateway entrance hub has been moved to reflect the existing location of the sign,’’ she said.
Bluff Community Board chairman Raymond Fife was pleased the community feedback was taken on board.
‘‘The proposed location was closer to Invercargill than Bluff — it would be around the Ocean Beach area.
‘‘But we had a reasonably strong feedback that the sign where it is, it is a good spot for it.’’
He said the idea now would be to tidy up the area where the sign is placed to enhance the experience for visitors.
