On Tuesday, committee members deliberated between endorsing an urban play option for the centre of town or distributing resources more widely throughout the city.
Both have a price tag of just under $5 million, plus external funding.
The area also received limited sunlight and had safety concerns because of the neighbouring Hubbers Emporium building, which has a wall propped up by supports.
Councillors were quick to point out those flaws, while indicating their preference to distribute urban play more widely.
Mana whenua representative Evelyn Cook said she liked the idea of pushing for play in the suburbs, while Cr Steve Broad questioned if the issues in Dee St meant it could work.
In response, council local play advocate Damien Puddle said all locations had their challenges, with a lack of open space a factor in the city centre.
Mayor Nobby Clark also had issues with the size of the Dee St site and said that the future of the Hubbers Emporium building next door was uncertain.
He said the council should ask for prioritisation of projects when it ultimately went out for consultation on urban play options.
"A lot of the advice I’m getting back from the community at the moment is that we should focus on doing one project at a time."
Cr Ria Bond was a dissenting voice against the urban play project in its entirety.
The committee ultimately recommended the distributed programme to the full council over the city-centre option, taking into consideration a variety of places such as Bluff, South Invercargill and North Invercargill.
That option also makes allowance for a scaled-down version of the city-centre programme.
The city centre option — requiring $1.5m external funding — included the downtown hub, a play pathway and temporary installations, while the distributed programme could end up seeking extra money dependent on the project.
Public consultation will be undertaken between March and April before a final decision is made.
• LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
