Future Of City Streetscapes Project Discussed at Council

Suggestions have been made by the City Centre Governance Group for council to shift its focus on better connecting Wachner Place and the new Distinction Hotel development with the rest of the CBD.

Because of a budget blowout of $20.4 million for Stage 1 of the City Streets project, the Invercargill City Council will be looking at a revised plan for Stage 2, and asked the group for input on this.

Rising inflation costs and the increased use of professional services, including for archaeological overviewing and specialist environmental advice, have been over and above what was anticipated.

A report to council from Russell Pearson, Manager of Strategic Asset Planning, said as well as inflation increases, allowances for further disposal of contaminated materials, undercutting of unsuitable road foundation, labour for the extended construction time and design changes had all contributed to the increased budget costs.

As at October 2022 the project was tracking approximately 17% over budget. Weekly programme updates are being provided to the General Manager of Infrastructure and the project is being closely monitored – it had now been cut back down to 10%.

The ICC met yesterday to hear from governance group chair John Green, who put forward a strong case for continuing with Stage 2.

He said the group wanted continuity and were “anxious” to see the project continue, but were not “tone deaf” and also understood the pressure from ongoing rising costs.

“It’s about reassessing those priorities – we don’t want to compromise on quality.”

The governance group believes it was important to link Esk and Don Streets and not leave them as two separate areas.   He said the city had good connections on the South and East sides, but was still struggling with the West.   John touched on Wachner Place and outlined the importance of linking both that area and the proposed Distinction Hotel to the city centre.

“We’re starting to think a wee bit outside just the city centre.”

What’s on Invers founder Mike Sanford said Wachner Place has never worked as a public space as it’s split by a double-lane highway, disconnecting it from the rest of the city.

“It makes sense to reinvent Wachner Place, not as a public space but more on an inclusion to complete the new City Streets project.

“We now have two unique public spaces – the revitalised Don and Esk Streets.  Both have plenty of spaces for public events.”

The group’s recommendation to council was to investigate the costs of the design and timeline for the reduced scope of Stage 2, “instead of kicking it into touch… we should keep going… and recutting our cloth to something more solid that we can get our teeth into,” John said.

When canvassing opinions around the room about whether Stage 2 should continue, Cr Darren Ludlow said his concerns were also about losing that momentum, and how hard it was to get a project going again once it had been sidelined.

Cr Allan Arnold suggested ‘staging’ Stage 2, and Cr Ian Pottinger said when he talked to designers, they were interested in solving the Wachner Place issue, “rather than go blindly onto Kelvin Street.”

“There is a massive disconnect between the city areas,” he said.

John said Kelvin Street was critical to the ‘walk through and walk around’ flow of the city, but Mayor Nobby Clark said retailers he had spoken to were nervous about the Esk Street/Kelvin Street intersection.

Russell Pearson told the committee they had been on a “bullet train” recently to get the work finished for Stage 1, “and now we need to use our team wisely, and build our city with heart.”

He said if the Distinction Hotel finishes early (planned for September 2023), then they needed to be ready, but Kelvin Street also needed underground services completed, and it was a matter of “when do we do that?”

“The biggest lesson I have learned is to actually think about the timing and when things are needed,” he said.