Future land use of the 37ha of Donovan Park farm proposed for sale won’t go out for public consultation until after the Invercargill City Council has signed off its Reserve Management Plan 2024.
The council agreed yesterday in its Community Wellbeing and Regulatory Committee to push on with the revocation process, that will go to the Minister of Conservation, but not until May 2025.
Council proposed last year to dispose of the Donovan Park farm, and now the public is also being consulted on what to do with the remaining 79ha, under Stage 2 of the reserve management plan.
Staff told council following public consultation on the masterplan that people wanted accessibility to the space and enjoyed what was there currently.
A hearings panel made up of four councillors (Darren Ludlow, Ria Bond, Trish Boyle, Lesley Soper and mana whenua representative Pania Coote) will consider those who wish to be heard, following the next round of public consultation from December 4 to February 14.
The final Donovan Park Reserve Management Plan 2025 will be presented to Council for approval in March/April.
Meanwhile, council voted in support of spending $30,000 to undertake the legal process involved in the land revocation process, that if approved by the Commissioner, will change its status from agricultural use to an alternative use, such as housing.
A previous motion in recent months to push on with the revocation process by Mayor Nobby Clark was lost, with chair Darren Ludlow cautioning that it was sending a message to the community about predetermination, alongside the masterplan for Donovan Park.
Cr Ludlow said yesterday the application to the Department of Conservation was “not insurmountable but certainly a challenge.”
Mayor Nobby Clark has always been in support of the proposal, and said they had talked at length about council needing another income stream.
“And we’ve also got to accommodate the needs of our aging population, and it’s all very well to talk about productive land but we should be brave enough to take the chance that we get turned back on this, because the alternative is we graze a few sheep on it, which is hardly productive use of such high value land.”
Council also agreed yesterday to progress a new plan change to enable medium density housing in the central city.
This follows the Murihiku Southland Housing Needs Assessment from 2023 that identified capacity over the next 30 years for an additional 6700 dwellings within District Plan zones.
The study found there was unmet demand for central living close to the CBD, with the minimum size site rule and discretionary activity status limiting uptake.
The new medium density zoning would enable more student and older persons housing in the CDB. The proposed plan change would be notified and submissions open between July and September 2025, and council expects a hearing and decisions between November 2025 and early 2026.