Mayoress Wants Wachner Place Clock To Stay

Karen Carter has quite different views from her Mayoral partner Nobby Clark, and this week admitted to putting in a submission supporting Wachner Place in the City Streets Stage 2 development.

Wachner Place has always held a place in her heart – particularly the town clock, and she has fond memories of taking her children there to watch the pendulum swing and hear it chime.

Submitters spoke at a hearing on the City Streets upgrade this week, and the future of Wachner Place was one of talking points.   A total of 150 submissions were made on the City Streets Stage 2.

Distinction Hotel is building a new 4.5 star hotel in lower Esk Street behind Wachner Place, and the developer was keen for access off Dee Street, particularly for buses coming through.

Geoff Thomson has also offered to pay for some of the redevelopment of Wachner Place, and as a result, the Invercargill City Council has put three options out to ratepayers for consideration.

The first option is to open up Wachner Place one way for tour buses and this is council’s preferred option; the second one is ‘people first’ with an Esk Street connection to the city centre, and bus access to the hotel from Leven Street; option three is a revitalised Wachner Place public realm opened up to promote the civic axis, with shared vehicle and pedestrian movements in and around the hotel development.

Karen thinks opening up Wachner Place for traffic will be a problem for wind, and she remembers what it was like when she worked in the old Menzies building years ago.

Prior to 1989 there was no Wachner Place, and when council developed the area it was named after a former Mayor Abraham Wachner who served from 1942-1950 – co-incidentally his wife liked the town clock too apparently.

“The area is shabby and needs a spruce up, it needs some greenery and a water feature, and with no traffic running between it and Esk. But Nobby’s dead against it.”

She said they had the same debate with letting traffic continue down Esk Street – he wants to let them through and she doesn’t – and she put in a submission about that too.